Repoll ordered in 48 polling stations in Punjab

New Delhi/Chandigarh, Feb 7 (IANS) The Election Commission on Tuesday ordered repoll in 48 polling stations of five assembly constituencies in Punjab where polling got interrupted due to snags in electronic voting machines (EVMs) and voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) equipment.

The poll panel said the repolling was ordered "in order to uphold the integrity of electoral process". The balloting will be held on Thursday.

Repolling has been ordered in 12 polling stations in Majitha, nine in Muktsar, six in Sangrur, four in Sardulgarh and one polling station in Moga.

Besides, repoll has been ordered in 16 polling stations of the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat for which by-election was also held on February 4 along with the assembly election.

"In some places due to VVPAT and EVMs malfunctioning, polling process got interrupted. Out of 24,697 ballot units (BUs) and 24,256 control units (CUs) used in Punjab, 180 BUs and 184 CUs failed. This works out to 0.73 per cent BUs and 0.76 per cent CUs," the Election Commission said.

"In the case of VVPATs, which were used for the first time in 33 assembly constituencies, out of total of 6,293 VVPATs, 255 (4.05 per cent) failed."

The faulty machines were replaced, it said.

The poll panel said the machine failure was not unusual and "compares well with the national average of 2.22 per cent of failure of EVMs over the years across country".

The fate of 1,145 candidates, including 81 women and one transgender, has been sealed in the EVMs following the Sunday voting. The vote count will take place on March 11.

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