NEW DELHI: The Election Commission on Tuesday ordered repolling at 73 polling booths in keenly-watched Kairana in Uttar Pradesh, at 49 polling stations in Bhandara Gondia, Maharashtra, and at one polling station in Nagaland.
The repoll would be held on Wednesday.
Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat refuted reports of large-scale failure of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines in the bye-elections held on Monday.
While speaking to media persons, Rawat insisted that there was no problem in the electronic voting machines.
“There is no problem with EVMs. Problem was with VVPAT. The VVPATs machines used in these elections are new and were used for the first time,” he said.
The CEC also made it clear that going back to ballot papers would not be possible.
He said, “There will not be any problems in 2019 elections and it will be held with VVPATs,” he added.
The commission on Monday had said placing the VVPAT machines under direct sunlight, mishandling, and extreme heat could have been responsible for the high failure rate.
More than 11 per cent of the 10,300 VVPAT machines used across 10 states had witnessed snags and were replaced on Monday during polling.
In Kairana, around 80,000 voters will exercise their franchise in 23 polling stations in Nakur, 44 in Gangoh, one in Thana Bhawan in Saharanpur, and five in Shamli.
Many political parties, including the BJP, had complained about malfunctioning in EVMs on Monday. In Kairana, complaints of VVPAT malfunctioning were reported from 384 places and the machines were replaced. The RLD, whose candidate Tabassum Hasan is backed by various Opposition parties, had complained to the EC that EVMs and VVPAT machines had malfunctioned at many places.