Tension prevailed on Saturday when a Tahsildar and three other officials entered the counting centre of the Madurai Parliamentary constituency without security clearance to access poll-related documents which were kept in an unsealed room.
The incident came to light when Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidate Su. Venkatesan received an alert that the officials entered the room and took the documents for photo-copying. The room contained voter turnout details and other poll-related documents submitted by Presiding Officers of all polling stations in the Madurai West Assembly segment.
The sealed rooms in which Electronic Voting Machines and Voter-verified Paper Audit Trail units were kept, however, were not accessed by the officials, sources said.
Candidates of other political parties, independents and their representatives soon began gathering in front of the Madurai Medical College, the designated counting centre. The crowd refused to disperse unless District Election Officer S. Natarajan reached the spot.
Mr. Venkatesan, who reviewed the CCTV footage with a few other candidates, told The Hindu that the Tahsildar and other officials entered the room around 3.15 p.m. “She was accompanied by three male officers. Two of them took documents outside for photocopying and returned later. They were in the room till 6.15 p.m.,” he said. A lady police officer, who noticed them, detained them in the room for more than 40 minutes as she was unconvinced by their explanation. “Later, officials from the Collectorate arrived and convinced the police to release them,” he said.
He said that of the six rooms in which documents related to the six Assembly segments were kept, only the one related to Madurai West was unsealed.
K. David Annadurai, AMMK candidate, said the breach raised serious doubts about the three-tier security mechanism. “The election officials should conduct a detailed inquiry to convince us that they were not favouring the ruling party,” he said.
Mr. Natarajan said there was no breach in the rooms where the EVMs and VVPATs were kept. Stating that there was no mala fide intention on the part of the officials, he, however, promised a thorough inquiry into the incident and appropriate action.
