Faulty EVMs, VVPAT snags delay voting at Punjab polling stations

Complaints about nearly 150 EVMs not functioning properly in various assembly constituencies were received by the state election office at Chandigarh.

The indelible ink is applied to a finger of a voter at a polling station in a village about 25 km from Amritsar on Saturday. | PTI

CHANDIGARH: The ongoing voting at different polling stations in Punjab was disrupted or delayed for periods ranging from five minutes to over an hour on Saturday due to technical snags in electronic voting machines (EVMs).

Complaints about nearly 150 EVMs not functioning properly in various assembly constituencies were received by the state election office here.

At some polling stations, voting was stopped for over an hour as the EVMs developed glitches. Voters were clearly upset over the delay in the exercise of their franchise, reports said.

The VVPAT (voter verified paper audit trail) machines also developed snags in various assembly segments.

The VVPAT issues a slip to the voter to make sure his vote has gone to the candidate whom he voted for by pressing the key opposite the contender's name on the EVM.

The Election Department is using 31,460 EVMs in the one-day assembly elections for 117 seats in Punjab. There are 22,614 polling stations in the state.

Over 50 per cent of Punjab's over 1.98 crore voters had cast their votes till 3 p.m., election officials said here.