| Staff REPORTER |
ITANAGAR, Apr 29: Alleging violation of norms during the recently held fresh poll at Dingsar and Lengi polling stations under Nacho Assembly Constituency in Upper Subansiri district, the Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) has demanded repolling at both the polling stations.
As ordered by the ECI, fresh poll was conducted at both the polling stations along with six others on April 24 last after the voting conducted at those polling booths on April 19 was declared void by the poll panel.
Narrating the ‘Dingsar’ incident, APCC vice president Toko Mina at a press conference here today claimed that on the day of re-polling, the actual voting started at 7.48 am after the mock poll. “And at 11:02 am, the polling team decided to take a break and before stepping out of the polling station, they checked the total number of votes cast till that time. Upon inspection, it was observed that the number of voters in the EVM machine was showing 235; however in the register of voters only 185 voters’ entries were made.
Upon detecting that, the INC polling agent suspected that there was an error in the voting machine and he urged the presiding officer to stop the polling process. The voting process was halted then and thereafter, the presiding officer called the technician to check the EVM, wherein the technician clearly stated that the polling team had not erased the data of mock poll, owing to which the vote casting data was showing incorrect and nothing could be done about it.
Upon this revelation, the agent demanded the polling team conduct a re-poll. Later, the Returning Officer also arrived at the scene at around 12.35 pm but nobody could provide a logical explanation why the polling process should resume. Owing to which, the voting process could not resume because of which more than 100 voters, around 45 percent of the total voters, standing in the queue for voting were left stranded and could not exercise their adult franchise. The RO along with the presiding officer finally concluded that there would be a re-poll and asked the polling agents to sign the blank form 17C at around 2 pm,” she said.
She expressed disappointment that despite the assurance by the RO and the polling team for repoll, it was not recommended. Mina also claimed that the sealing of EVM was not done at the polling station, which it said is in violation of the prescribed guidelines of the Election Commission.
Regarding the conflict with Lengi, the APCC vice president alleged that her party’s polling agent was not allowed to enter the polling station in the beginning. She also stated that none of the polling agents were allowed to witness the mock poll despite being present there.
“During the time of sealing of the EVM units, the signatures of polling agents were not sought in the green paper seal, special tag and strip paper seal by the polling team. Also, the polling agents were not allowed to note down the serial number of EVM units i.e., the Control Unit, VVPAT and the voting unit. Thus, it is difficult for us to ascertain which EVM units were used during the polling process in the Lengi polling station.
The actual voting started at around 6.40 am. After casting of vote by 8-10 persons, the presiding officer issued the entry pass to the Congress’s polling agent. Shockingly, no seating arrangements were made for the polling agents inside the PS.
With no seating arrangement inside the polling station, they were made to sit outside, from where it was impossible for them to observe the entire voting process and to identify the electors. Whereas, it has been clearly defined that the polling agents must be seated in the place from where they will have adequate opportunities to identify electors. Thus this act of the polling team did not let the polling agents perform their basic duties as polling agents i.e., observing whether the voting process was done in a free and fair manner.
“This is a gross violation of the basic provision of the conduct of Election Rules 1961 where the role of polling agents has been made an integral part of the election process. Thus depriving the polling agents of their primary duties and roles, the sanctity of the election process has been compromised and degraded beyond measure,” she alleged.
APCC also called for strict action against the officers involved in ‘illegal’ activities in the two polling stations which it said deprived the basic rights of citizens. “If Election Commission fails to address our demand, we will launch democratic movement against it,” she warned.