Repolling has been initiated at 7:00 AM today, Saturday in 15 booths in the South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has decided to conduct repolling after receiving several serious accusations of tampering of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) during the second phase of assembly elections conducted yesterday, Wednesday.
“As many as 11 polling booths in the Magrahat Paschim Assembly constituency and four polling booths in the Diamond Harbour Assembly constituency have been directed by the ECI to conduct fresh polls,” said an official of the poll panel in Kolkata. “We are waiting for some reports concerning the complaints received from Falta Assembly constituency,” he added, indicating that more repolling may take place in future.
The ECI has greatly improved the security measures to ensure smooth conduct of the election today. CAPF forces have been posted both inside and outside the voting booth areas to maintain peace and avoid the kind of disruption witnessed on Wednesday. Besides, micro-observers will be present in each booth to check whether the process is being carried out without any malpractice.
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Background of the Issue
The move for a fresh election has come after receiving numerous complaints about electoral malpractices. The ECI claims to have received at least 77 complaints concerning EVM manipulation and booth jamming during the second phase. In some cases, the contestants complained about the voting machine recording votes for a particular party irrespective of which button was pressed by the voter, thus provoking demonstrations on site.
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