Barring minor clashes and technical snags of EVMs in few constituencies, the elections concluded on Monday peacefully.
According to police, around 20 cases of minor scuffles were reported across Chennai. A clash was reported between BJP and AIADMK cadre in Aminjikarai St. Vincent Higher Secondary School.
There were reports of EVMs malfunctioning across the city. “Around 70 such reports from places like Mylapore, Kilpauk, Ambattur, Mangadu and Thousand Lights were received. However, all were rectified within an hour,” said a police officer.
In Tiruvallur district, malfunctioning of EVMs in Periya Veepathur (Ponneri constituency), Mangapuram (Titutani constituency), and Kakkalur (Tiruvallur constituency) delayed voting by three hours.
Voters protest
In two separate incidents, 250 voters in Mangapuram Colony refused to vote owing to lack of basic facilities, including transport as they have to travel 3 km to vote at a polling booth within Mangapuram village.
Voters in Mittanakandigai village threatened to boycott the polls owing to lack of basic facilities. After assurance from Tirutani tahsildar S. Abhishekam, they were transported by government buses to polling booths. Both the areas fall under the Tirutani constituency.
A total of 43 EVMs that developed technical snag at various polling stations in six Assembly constituencies in the Namakkal district were replaced. When polling began at 7 a.m. the snag were reported in the EVMs and were immediately replaced.
The incident disrupted the polling for less than 30 minutes.
In Tiruchi, malfunctioning of an EVM marred the polling for some time at a polling booth in Minikkiyur in Manapparai constituency.
Officials encountered the technical snag around 8 am.
Since efforts to revive the machine did not yield results, the faulty EVM was replaced at 11 am. Voters, who were made to wait in queue for about three hours, demanded that the voting time should be extended for three hours.
About 20 cases of minor clashes, 70 instances of EVMs malfunctioning were reported
