Madurai MP Su Venkatesan has flayed election officials for not issuing identity card/pass to agents of candidates that gives them access to counting centres where EVMs and VVPATs of 10 Assembly constituencies in the district are stored in strong rooms.
“It is 36 hours after polling and 24 hours after the EVMs and VVPATs were moved to the four counting centres. But officials are yet to issue passes with photo identity to agents as mandated by the Election Commission,” the CPI(M) MP said.
Flaying the officials for their lethargic attitude, he said the very purpose of allowing agents to monitor the strong rooms through the CCTV network installed in counting centres had been defeated.
Mr. Venkatesan recalled that the presence of agents helped to nab a woman official who had entered a counting centre in Madurai to get election-related documents without the knowledge of agents during Lok Sabha election in 2019.
“We want to ensure that no such incident happens now. For that, each candidate of the 10 Assembly constituencies should have his/her agent to keep a vigil in the counting centre round the clock,” he added.
The pass should be issued to three agents for each candidate so that they took turns to be at the counting centres. “The officials claim that they do not even have the format of the identity card/pass to be issued to agents,” Mr. Venkatesan said.
However, Collector T. Anbalagan denied the charges and said Returning Officers issued passes to agents of the candidates after sealing the strong rooms.
