EVM malfunctions were reported at many places in Ottapidaram Assembly constituency during the bypoll held on Sunday.
Voting was delayed by about 50 minutes at Ottanatham near Ottapidaram due to a snag. Following the malfunction of the EVM around 9.45 a.m. at Ramanuja Hindu Middle School, the machine was sealed. It had 255 votes cast until then.
Meanwhile, polling booth agents of various political parties questioned how the EVM was sealed without being shown to them. They also questioned whether the votes cast previously would be taken up for counting. This led to a heated argument.
After the zonal officer held talks with them, a mock poll was conducted on a new machine that was brought in. Electors then continued to cast their votes.
At a panchayat union primary school in Onamakulam near Kayathar, the EVM started malfunctioning early on, after which engineers were brought in to fix the problem. This led to a delay of about 20 minutes.
At Valasamuthram near Kurukkuchalai, the VVPAT faced a snag, resulting in delay of about half an hour.
Meanwhile, power cuts hit the TNDTA Middle School polling station at Airavanpatti twice, after which only low voltage power was restored. At the time, DMK candidate C. Shanmugaiya was waiting to cast his vote. After nearly an hour, power was restored after the zonal officer took steps to restore the connection using power lines from a nearby church.
At a government higher secondary school in Kurukkuchalai, representatives of a few political parties were seen seated within the 100m mark and canvassing for votes. They were later removed from the spot by security personnel.
