The State Election Commission received 18 complaints pertaining to the malfunctioning of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) during the municipal polls in the national Capital on Sunday. Voters had to wait in the blistering heat till the EVMs were rectified or replaced.
“Glitches in the electronic voting machines (EVMs) were reported from 18 polling stations. They were replaced and voting resumed,” said State Election Commissioner S K Srivastava.
He said 18 electronic voting machines (EVMs) were replaced owing to battery or button related issues.
Srivastava said that the EVM issue had made a lot of headlines before the polls to the city’s three municipal corporations, but out of around 13,000 polling stations, glitches were found dismal.
“It speaks for itself,” he said, adding that the machines have done well. Former Delhi minister and BJP leader Arvind Singh lovely was among those who could not cast their vote early in the morning due to the glitches in the EVM at a polling booth in East Azad Nagar area.
“I reached the polling station at 8 am. But, I could not cast my vote as the EVM was not working. I had to leave the place due to some urgent work. I will later go to exercise my franchise,” said lovely.
Voting at some polling stations in North Delhi’s Burari area and South West Delhi’s Kapashera areas had to be stopped for a few minutes after complaints of malfunctioning of the EVMs were reported from there.
“There were few complaints of the malfunctioning of the EVMs at Burari and Kapashera, which were rectified,” an official source said.
Apart from it, at GTB ward, voters had to face problems as some EVMs were not functioning properly.
The voting for the MCD elections started at 8 am, in around 13,000 polling stations across the city, amid ample security arrangements.
Out of the 13,022 polling stations, police had declared 3,284 as “sensitive” while 1,464 as “hyper-sensitive”.
For the first time in the MCD elections, “None Of The Above (NOTA)” option was made available to the voters.
Out of the total 1,32,10,206 electors, 1.1 lakh were first time voters.The voting to the 270 wards of the three civic bodies - NDMC (103 wards), SDMC (104) and EDMC (63) - concluded at 5.30 pm. Counting of votes will be held on April 26.