Aquem set for re-poll today

MARGAO: The 791 voters registered at polling booth No. 8 housed at T B

Cunha

high school, Aquem, Margao, will exercise their franchise at a re-poll to be held on Tuesday, three days after Goa went to the polls. Polling will be held from 7am to 5pm.

The polls held on February 4 at this booth were cancelled midway through the polling after a “technical error” was brought to the notice of the election authorities.

The electorate of this booth has to go through polling rituals once again on account of human error.

The presiding officer concerned forgot to clear the EVM machine and reset it to zero count once the mock poll (conducted before the commencement of the actual polls) was over, thereby leading to cancellation of the polls. As 50 votes were cast at the mock polls, the machine began counting the actual votes from 50 onwards.

The error came to light only at around 11.30am when the actual voter turnout didn’t tally with the votes read by the EVM. By then 192 votes had been cast. After a prolonged suspension of polling, the election authorities finally declared the polling to be cancelled for that polling station and announced a re-poll.

Of the 791 registered voters in this polling booth, 372 are male and 419 female.

Speaking to TOI on Monday, returning officer for Margao constituency,

Uday Prabhudessai

, said all arrangements have been put in place to ensure smooth polling at the booth.

Significantly, the Election Commission of India (ECI) had directed the chief electoral officer of Goa that wide publicity be ensured about the re-poll “also by beat of drums in the polling area of that polling station”.

Prabhudessai said, “The ECI has directed us to ensure wide publicity and we have done that. We moved a vehicle fitted with a public address system across the polling area of the polling booth throughout the day today (Monday) informing the voters about the re-poll scheduled on Tuesday. Besides, a copy of an appeal was sent to every house (having registered voters) in the area, detailing the circumstances which led to a re-poll and urging them to exercise their franchise on Tuesday between 7am and 5pm. The appeals were delivered through the booth level officer (BLO) of the polling booth.”