Polling Suspended In Perambur Constituency Booth After Voters Complained Of Tech Snag

Polling was suspended for more than two hours in the Perambur constituency polling booth after two women voters complained of a technical snag in the EVM machine.

According to Makkal Needhi Maiam candidate A Ponnusami, when the girl and her sister tried to vote, the button did not work. "They raised the issue with the presiding officer, but the presiding officer asked her to check other buttons. When she followed her instruction, her vote was cast. The presiding officer denied her the chance of voting for her favourite candidate," Ponnusami said.

However, according to one of the girls, Sandhya, her vote was cast by the presiding officer, who came in to check the VVPAT technical snag and it was not the party which she intended to vote. She further said that whenever she tried to cast her vote to her favourite contestant, the machine did not respond whereas when the presiding officer pressed the button of some other party candidate, the VVPAT worked and hence she sought another chance to vote.

Based on Sandhya's complaint, polling officials promised to let the sisters vote again.

But, after making them wait for several hours, the officials claimed that Sandha's vote had been cast and refused to let her vote again.