The repoll in the eight polling stations of Paapireddypatty Assembly segment went off without any glitch amid heavy security deployment and close monitoring by officials on Sunday.
The repoll registered a poll percentage of 89.67% in the eight polling stations. The votes polled, however, marked a marginal fall from the percentage of votes polled on April 19, which was 89.90%.
Nathamedu registered 90.72% voter turnout, recording a marginal increase of 1.15 % from the votes polled on April 19. This village is one of the polling stations that came under scanner on April 19 for multiple voting, counter capturing and other poll-related irregularities, resulting in the Election Commission countermanding the polls on the basis of a report submitted by the District Election Officer (DEO).
According to the Election Commission, in these eight polling stations, it had been proved “beyond doubt” that polling agents had then entered the voting compartment along with voters on many occasions – in some cases, votes of elders were cast either by political party agents or the person accompanying these elders. According to the Election Commission, since voters had not cast their votes in a free and fair manner, the Returning Officer had recommended a repoll in these eight stations.
Sunday's polling, which witnessed heavy security in and around the polling centres, went smoothly except for two foiled instances to cast double votes by two women at Nathamedu who were removed in time by vigilant officials.
One of the women, who had come running into the Centre at 6 p.m. was soon thrown out by the police and the officials after they saw her inked index finger. The woman feigned ignorance of ‘one person, one vote’ rule. Another woman’s bid to impersonate someone was also caught on time.