Re-polling in 2 Patiala polling booths today

Saturday, 03/05/2014

http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=102096&boxid=57892&uid=&dat=2014-05-03

Chandigarh : The Election Commission of India (ECI) has ordered fresh polls at two polling stations in Nabha Assembly segment of Patiala parliamentary constituency on May 3.

Disclosing this, here on Friday, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) V K Singh said that the polling stations where re-polling would take place included Government Boys School in Doda and Government Senior Secondary School for Boys in Nabha. He said that the re-polling hours would be 7 am to 6 pm.

CEO added that the Deputy Commissioner-cum-Returning Officer has been directed to make requisite arrangements for this re-poll.

It may be recalled that during the general elections to elect 13 members of Lok Sabha held on April 30, few incidents of violence were reported from various parts of the state.

The first incident had taken place in polling station number 162 of Patiala rural (Tripari), where few people entered polling station and threw the control unit of EVM on ground that damaged the unit partially. In this case, two persons had been arrested and FIR had been registered against the guilty. However, polling was resumed with new machine and efforts would be made to retrieve data from old machine. At Rasoolpur village of Patiala, Aam Adami Party (AAP) candidate Dr Dharamvir Gandhi was attacked by some political opponents and police had registered an FIR in this matter. Another incident had occurred in village Gallowal Hargobindpur of Batala, where a fight broke out between supporters of two rival political parties.

In a third incident at Ferozepur, FIR under Sections 131 and 132 of the Representation of Peoples Act was registered for disorderly conduct of some individuals in the polling station. In the fourth incident in the same constituency, an FIR under Section 171 of the IPC was registered for undue influence to voters.

In an unrelated incident at village Cheecha near village Rampura of Attari Assembly constituency, a service weapon of security personnel was fired accidentally in which nobody was injured. A fight had broken out between supporters of two political parties at Kartarpur in Jalandhar parliamentary constituency. An FIR had been registered in this matter. The CEO informed that over 400 EVMs were replaced due to faulty working. He said that over 300 EVMs were replaced in the first hour of voting as EVMs in Punjab were quiet old.

Taking cognisance of the report sent by CEO, the ECI ordered re-poll at two polling booths due to various EVM problems depending upon the reports of Retuning Officers and Observers.