Achi news desk-
Assistant police officer Binmon P. said that the technical malfunction only happened in four machines in four camps. “It was a technical glitch. All the additional files with the lotus symbol had ‘not to be counted’ written on them. The issue was corrected in the third round. Now we will check the polling day. A report has been submitted to the district collector,” Binmon said.
In this Lok Sabha constituency, there are 190 booths. In each constituency, there should be 20 percent more machines, so this device requires 228 machines each, both control units and ballot units. There should also be 30 percent more VVPAT machines, so 247 VVPAT machines are required. All of these were reviewed in preparation for the April 26 election.
So, back to the faulty four: Even when the BJP’s lotus symbol was not pressed, these faulty VVPAT machines gave votes to the party, insists Nassar Charkalam. “We were the first to raise the issue and when we raised it, the assistant election officer said it had ‘must not be considered’ written on it,” Unnithan’s election agent also admits.
However, he wants to emphasize the concern of his clients that even if there is a ‘not to be counted’ stamp on the slip, if any problem occurs during the counting, the BJP agents are likely to insist on counting those as their votes. “This is why we asked for new machines. What is the guarantee that these malfunctions will not occur on election day? If it happens on election day, then all these machines will have to be replaced,” says Nasar Charkalam.
He also questions why all the flawed machines only seem to favor the BJP candidate, never a Congress or CPI(M) candidate.
