Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Shurbir Singh on Sunday said the CEO website had shown some nominations of candidates as both “rejected” and “accepted”. This was because of the erroneous classification of the secondary application of the same candidate, he said.
Of the two incidents that drew widespread confusion and consternation during the scrutiny of nominations on Saturday, the nomination of Congress candidate Ramesan Parambath in Mahe was shown as rejected though his primary nomination affidavit had been accepted.
In another instance, BJP candidate in Kalapet P.M.L. Kalyanasundaram’s nomination was displayed as rejected in one uploaded entry and accepted in another.
As it stands, the nomination of both candidates have been accepted.
‘Erroneously displayed’
“As candidates submit more than one set of papers as back up, once the party symbol is allotted in the prescribed form, only one nomination is counted as accepted. The secondary nomination paper of the same candidate was erroneously displayed as rejected. We are scrubbing the error on the site,” Mr. Singh said.
Meanwhile, Mahe Returning Officer Shivraj Meena issued a press note stating that Mr. Parambath, a Congress candidate, had filed two nomination papers and both the nomination papers were found in order and accepted after scrutiny.
“While uploading the nomination details on the website of Election Commission of India [ECI], one nomination of Ramesan Parambath was shown as accepted and the other one was shown as rejected erroneously. Now the status has been corrected. Both nominations show as accepted”.
The Elections Department said on Sunday that the nomination papers of 382, of an estimated 450 candidates, who entered the process, were accepted after the scrutiny exercise.
Monday is the last date for the withdrawal of nominations.