THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Malfunctioning of electronic voting machines (EVM) disrupted polling for a brief period at several booths in constituencies across the state. While polls opened late in some booths on account of EVM glitches, at some other places voting was delayed for a couple of hours. Polling in those places resumed only after the EVMs were replaced.
Voting couldn’t commence at the scheduled hour of 7am in the polling booth at Poyya LP School in Thrissur, following EVM snag, while polling was stopped for a brief period at the polling station in Kattachakonam GHS in Kazhakoottam constituency due to a technical snag. Similarly, voting was affected at the Neeramankara Women’s Polytechnic College in Nemom constituency after the voting machine developed a technical snag. Voting was also disrupted for two hours at booths number 15 and 15 A of Government BTS LP School, Edappally due to EVM snag. Later, polling resumed by 9am.
According to official figures, as many as 150 ballot units, 150 control units, and 747 Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines developed technical snags, while four ballot units, four control units and 33 VVPAT machines encountered technical glitches during the Malappuram Lok Sabha byelections. This would come to around 0.3% of the total ballot units and control machines and 1.6% of VVPAT pressed for election purpose.