Moradabad: Voting in the first phase of Municipal Corporation elections was halted temporarily at a polling station in Uttar Pradesh's Moradabad due to a technical snag in an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM), an official said on Thursday.
The EVM stopped working at Shyamu Devi Polling Station booth number 288 in Moradabad thus temporarily stalling the polling process. The voters were seen standing in the long queue waiting for the polling to begin.
Voting in the first phase of the two-phased local body polls started at 7 am and is underway in 37 districts of 9 divisions and 10 municipal corporations.
"There is a defect in the machine. A button in the machine is not working. We have called the engineers and soon the voting will begin again," Mukesh Saxena, Presiding officer said. Another officer said that voting is underway at all other polling stations.
"In Moradabad, there are 578 booths and voting is underway at all the booths. In 10 municipal corporations, voting will be held in 830 wards. We have received a few complaints of EVM defects after which we have changed the EVM. We have divided Moradabad into 14 zones and 70 sectors for security purposes," he said.
A voter standing in the queue waiting for his turn to arrive to cast his vote said, "We are standing here in the queue since the morning but the machine is not working. The officers are unable to tell whether the machine will work again or not."
"They (officers) are telling that machine is not working," another voter said. Hemraj Meena, Morabadbad SSP said, "The polling has begun for the Uttar Pradesh Municipal Corporation from 7 am. The force has been deployed. We urge voters to come out of their houses to cast their votes.
Voting is underway in 37 districts of 9 divisions and 10 municipal corporations. In 10 municipal corporations, voting will be held in 830 wards, 9,699 polling places and 2,658 polling stations are set up in Municipal Corporations.
The polling for the second phase will take place on May 11 to elect representatives for the posts across 760 local bodies in the state. The counting of votes will take place on May 13. (ANI)
