This story is from April 12, 2019

Smooth sailing for Nizamabad as polling goes off smoothly

Smooth sailing for Nizamabad as polling goes off smoothly
People wait in queue to cast their vote in Nizamabad on Thursday.
NIZAMABAD: The mammoth polling involving use of a record 26,000 EVMs in Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency went off smoothly. Except for minor glitches in the morning, voters exercised their franchise without facing any hassle. Officials said polling till 5 pm was 54%.
“The staff worked day and night to put in place proper arrangements for an error-free and fair polling.
We are happy that polling went off smoothly,” district collector Ram Mohan Rao told TOI.
The State Election Commission had taken permission from the Election Commission of India to make special arrangements for polling staff and agents in view of space constraints. This was necessitated as there were 12 balloting units in each booth, while some booths had more than a dozen agents as turmeric farmers had filed a record number of nominations as independents.
Booth numbers 43 and 45 in Balkonda encountered some glitches. “The glitches were mainly due to heavy light used in the polling booths. The EVMs need to be kept away from light. We, however, rectified them within minutes,” K Jagadeeswara Chari, a BEL engineer appionted to monitoring EVMs’ functioning, told TOI.
Chief electoral officer Rajat Kumar said though polling began late in three booths, it went off smoothly later. In some areas, elderly persons had a difficult time understanding the entire gamut of ballot units. “We have never seen these many boxes. I was confused for a while as to how to vote before a polling staffer came to my rescue and helped me in exercising my franchise,” KM Rao, 65, a retired employee, said after voting in the Nizamabad urban segment.
Minor confusion prevailed for some time over VVPATs as voters were at their wits’ end. However, officials helped them understand the difference between VVPATs and EVMs and polling went on without any hitch.
Polling began at 8 am after two hours of mock polling. Turmeric and jowar farmers, who caught national attention after filing nominations, also took part in the mock polling.
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