CHENNAI: DMK senior counsel NR Elango on Saturday said the party would seek legal remedy over alleged discrepancies found during the verification of electronic voting machines (EVMs), control units (CUs) and voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) units from 14 polling stations in Kolathur, the constituency where DMK president and former chief minister MK Stalin lost to TVK’s VS Babu by 8,795 votes.
The verification was briefly halted on Saturday after DMK representatives raised objections over the address tag of the CU from booth number 157. A few hours later, the process was resumed in the presence of Greater Chennai Corporation commissioner and district election officer GS Sameeran after DMK representatives refused to participate further. Elango alleged that the CU and three ballot units from booth number 157 lacked mandatory details on address tags, affixed over the machines’ locks, such as the constituency, polling station number, machine number and sign of officer concerned.
EVM issues in ex-CM’s Kolathur seat minor clerical error: Sameeran
Elango said the tags appeared new and, though each machine carries two address tags, neither had been filled. He also alleged the sealing procedure had not been properly followed.
“The arakku (wax) seal is normally affixed on the backside of the address tag, whereas in this case it was found on the front. Further, whenever a control unit is opened for counting and sealed again, it should carry two arakku seals. That was also missing,” he said. Elango further said the DMK had asked the election officials to preserve the machines from the booth, and claimed that of the eight machines verified so far, around 30% showed similar discrepancies.
“We do not find it necessary to participate further in the verification process. We will discuss the matter with our party leadership and proceed with the appropriate legal course,” he said. When contacted, GCC commissioner Sameeran told TNIE that the address tags affixed outside the carrying cases of the ballot and control units had not been filled with the polling station address, but the polling station number was clearly written on the carrying cases themselves, and the serial numbers of the units, verifiable on opening the cases, could be cross-checked against records to identify each unit. “Hence, it is a minor clerical error, which could be verified and corroborated with other records,” he said.
Sameeran also referred to the verification at polling station 75, where the first stage was completed successfully on July 31, with polled votes shown to authorised representatives, and the pre-mock poll also completed without issues. During the mock poll, after around 412 votes were recorded, the VVPAT displayed “Error 2.9” and stopped functioning; the authorised representative was asked to choose an alternative VVPAT or EVM set to continue but opted to boycott instead. He further said that if verification of the 14 machines cannot be completed in the presence of the candidate or chief election agent, guidelines allow it to be completed before the district election officer, with alternate EVMs picked at random and the entire process under mandatory video recording.
“We have sent a letter to the DMK representatives with the list of 10 randomly selected EVM sets and given them an hour to choose two. If they refuse, we will select two EVMs and complete the procedure before other political agents on video recording for submission to the Election Commission,” he said, adding that the eight EVMs verified so far showed matching polled votes, candidate-wise vote counts, Form 20 tallies and preliminary mock poll counts.