GUWAHATI, April 19: A total of 1,025 Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) components — control units, VVPATs and ballot units — were replaced due to malfunctioning in the first phase of polling across the five Lok Sabha seats in Assam on Friday, officials said.
In several cases, complete EVM sets were replaced, while it was changed in parts in most of the cases after snags were detected, a senior official of the Election Department told PTI.
Several of these glitches were noticed during the mock polling, which started 90 minutes before the commencement of the actual voting, and those machines were replaced accordingly, he added.
An EVM has three components — Control Unit (CU), Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) and Ballot Unit (BU).
“In the five constituencies, 330 CUs, 540 VVPATs and 155 BUs were replaced in total from different machines,” the official said.
During the mock poll, 150 complete sets of EVMs were replaced after they malfunctioned, the official said.
He, however, declined to share details such as how many EVMs malfunctioned in which constituency.
When contacted, chief electoral officer Anurag Goel said that there were reports of malfunctioning of EVMs from some booths and those machines were replaced.
“As per the reports, around 5.5 per cent VVPATS were replaced, while 3.3 per cent of control units and 1.6 per cent of ballot units were changed till 5 pm. These figures may go up slightly if more machines are replaced after 5 pm,” he told PTI.
Another official said that reports of EVM malfunctioning came from at least three polling booths of Bihpuria in Lakhimpur, one each in Hojai, Kaliabor and Bokakhat, and one in Naharkatia of Dibrugarh.
“Voting at Jorbil Baniya LP School booth in Majuli started one hour late as the EVM stopped functioning and it began after a new machine arrived. Two more polling stations at Majuli witnessed more than an hour delay in voting due to malfunctioning,” he added.
Likewise, failure of three EVM sets resulted in almost an hour delay in three polling stations in Mariani, the official said.
The total number of polling stations in the first phase is 10,001, of which 92 are model polling stations, 11 are PwD-managed and 752 are women-operated centres. Webcasting is being done in 5,509 polling stations. (PTI)
