Delhi Elections 2024: EVMs malfunction, VVPAT slips get stuck in North East Delhi

Delhi Elections: Multiple complaints of malfunctioning Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) were reported from the North East Delhi constituency on the day of polling on Saturday.

At SB Public School in Karawal Nagar, a female voter noted that her VVPAT slip was not getting ejected.

“When I pressed the button, the slip refused to eject into the box. The guideline states that it should print the symbol of the party voted for and then the printed slip should fall into the box within six seconds but none of that happened as the slip got stuck,” she said on the condition of anonymity.

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She further accused the sector officer of the polling booth for not listening to her complaint and telling her to leave.

However, the sector officer Mangral said that he tried to make her understand that there was nothing wrong with the machine since he had looked into them himself prior to the polling.

“I sat myself down with my team members and all of us tried the EVM for hours to ensure that it works without any hindrance on the day of polling. She probably went inside to create a ruckus because otherwise the system is foolproof,” he said.

He further narrated that another voter had gone inside to vote but later emerged to complain to the sector officer regarding the VVPAT slip not reflecting.

“She had gone inside and accused us of tampering with the elections, saying that the VVPAT slip was not displaying the party’s symbol that she had voted for. I told her to press the button gently and the slip would reflect. She was pressing it really hard,” said Mangral.

A Congress worker, closely associated with MP candidate Kanhaiya Kumar, alleged that they had received around five complaints from Gokulpuri about the VVPAT slip not working.

Following the allegations, another voter, Shakib Khan (name changed) said that two of the polling stations at the Karawal Nagar school were being intentionally slowed down to not let the voters vote.

“Both of these polling stations have Muslims voting in majority which is why the voting is not as smooth. The presiding officer in the station is taking at least five minutes per voter, while the queue keeps increasing,” Khan said.

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Similarly, Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Brinda Karat alleged that her vote was delayed by almost an hour because the battery of the EVM control unit had “drained out”. Delhi ministers and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) members Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj also complained about irregularities.

The Supreme Court had last month ruled that the runner up party would have the right to check VVPAT slips after the results at their own expense.