Bhubaneswar: Over 53 per cent of 67.93 lakh voters Thursday exercised their voting rights across five Lok Sabha and 35 Assembly seats under them in the second phase general elections in Odisha by 3pm, said Odisha Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Surendra Kumar.
Speaking to reporters here, he added that re-polling will be held in booth number – 129 of Bonai Assembly constituency, booth 213 of Sundergarh Assembly constituency, and in booth – 210 and 222 of Daspalla Assembly constituency.
The voters had complained that the votes were not going to the candidate of their choice in those booths.
The CEO has recommended the Election Commission of India for conducting re-polling in these booths.
Addressing the apprehension of reporters, he further clarified that the issue started because of human errors and neither the EVM nor the VVPAT machine had any issue of their own.
According to Kumar, the issue started after the on-duty polling officials fitted the VVPAT machine meant for Lok Sabha with Assembly EVM and Assembly VVPAT machine with EVM meant for Lok Sabha by mistake.
He further assured that action would be taken against the concerned officials for negligence of duty.