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The Election Commission on Friday ordered a repoll in nine booths in Poonch, Jammu, and Budgam districts of Jammu and Kashmir, following reports of violence, rigging, and faulty electronic voting machines.
Three booths in Surankote, three in Mendhar, two in Budgam, and one in Gandhinagar segment will go in for a repoll, Deputy Chief Electoral Officer Dheeraj Gupta told reporters in Srinagar.
The repoll will be conducted on October 1 along with the districts of Pulwama, Anantnag, Kathua, and Udhampur, which go to the polls in the third phase of the state assembly election.
Repoll has been ordered at polling station numbers 43a and 44a of Budgam segment following reports of rigging, Gupta said. Repolling will be held in two stations in Mendhar segment and one in Gandhinagar constituency for similar reasons. In Surankote, the repoll has been scheduled after reports of violence at two polling stations and a faulty EVM at a third.
Giving the revised figures of polling for the second phase, Gupta said that after reports from all the remote areas poured in, the tally stood at 41 per cent for the districts of Jammu, Srinagar, and Budgam.
While the final tally for Jammu was 58 per cent, it was 46 per cent for Budgam and 11 per cent for Srinagar. The latest figures included the votes polled by migrants.
He said Kangan constituency witnessed the highest turnout of 52 per cent in Srinagar district while Habbakadal registered a little over 2 per cent. Akhnoor and Chhamb sectors registered 72 per cent turnout in Jammu district, while Chrar-e-Sharief topped with 63 per cent in Budgam district.
Gupta said complaints were still pouring in about various malpractices during the elections and the Election Commission was looking into them.
Dispelling fears of political parties about possible manipulation of the EVMs, Gupta said the machines had been locked in a strong room and there was no possibility of misuse.
Reacting to a question about the recovery of an EVM from a government employee in Kupwara district, he said, "The EVM was in possession of the block development officer of Lolab segment, who was returning from Sogham village after educating the polling staff there."
Although Kupwara district went to the polls on September 16 in the first phase, elections in the Lolab segment were countermanded to October 8 following the killing of state law minister and National Conference candidate Mushtaq Ahmad Lone on September 11.
PTI
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