CHENNAI: Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo on Thursday admitted that actor Srikanth was also allowed to cast vote on April 18 even though his name was not in voters’ list as in the case of actor Sivakarthikeyan.
Speaking to presspersons at the Secretariat, Sahoo said an inquiry by the returning officer revealed that Srikanth’s name was not in the voters’ list (at the booth in Saligramam) where he cast his vote. “We have sought a detailed report from the officials concerned about how his name got deleted,” added Sahoo. Similarly, Sivakarthikeyan also cast his vote even though his name was not listed.
Asked whether action will be taken against the actors, Sahoo said action would be taken against those officials who allowed the actors to cast their votes. “The presiding officer-I is entrusted with the responsibility of verifying the name of voter in electoral rolls. Accordingly, departmental action will be taken,’’ he added
Explaining the measures taken for protection of the electronic voting machines, Sahoo said a total of 7,922 police personnel had been deployed for security at 45 counting centres across the State. On postal ballots, the CEO said that a total of 2,61,592 postal votes had been issued for government employees out of which 1,33,632 postal ballots were received as on April 24. “We have issued election duty certificates to 1,18,398 government and non-government staff. As for police personnel, 90,002 postal votes from all personnel on poll duty were received,” he added.
Answering a query on the political parties’ demand to set up ‘Thanneer Pandal’ (drinking water kiosk) in view of the summer, the CEO said he had sought an explanation from the Election Commission on this.