Over 70 per cent voting was registered in Gujarat at close of polling at 5 p.m. in the first phase, though there were still long queues lined up to vote at most polling stations, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Gujarat, B.B. Swain said on Saturday
Published: 09 Dec 2017, 12:16 PM IST
Senior Congress leader Arjun Modhwadia complained of possible EVM tampering at three polling booths in a Muslim-dominated area of Porbandar claiming that some machines were found to be connecting to external devices via bluetooth.
The Election Commission said that based on the Congress leader's complaint, an inquiry had been initiated.
"We detected that the EVMs at three polling booths at Memanwada, a Muslim-dominated area, are connected to external devices through bluetooth. When the bluetooth of a mobile phone is turned on, a device named 'ECO 105' is shown as available," Modhwadia, the Congress candidate from Porbandar, said.
This clearly means that the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) can be tampered with using the device via bluetooth, he alleged.
"The chips fitted in the EVMs appear to be programmable using bluetooth, and this raises the possibility of tampering.
The voting system should be immune to such connectivity to external devices," he said.
Modhwadia said he had registered a complaint with the district election officer. The election officer visited the booth and saw the display, he added.
Published: 09 Dec 2017, 12:16 PM IST
After the polling process began at 8 am, people could be seen stepping out of their homes despite cold weather and queuing up to exercise their franchise at the polling stations
According to officials, around 11 per cent voting has been recorded in the first two hours
Although there were reports of technical glitches in EVMs in Surat and some other centres, the polling process resumed after the machines were replaced, officials of the Election Commission said
In the first two hours, several important leaders and candidates cast their votes, including Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, his opponent on Rajkot-West seat Indranil Rajyaguru, senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel, Gujarat BJP chief Jitu Vaghani and Congress MLA of Amreli seat Paresh Dhanan, among others
Cricketer Cheteshwar Pujara also cast his vote in Rajkot
Published: 09 Dec 2017, 12:16 PM IST
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Published: 09 Dec 2017, 12:16 PM IST