While the repoll ordered by the Election Commission in seven booths in the Kannur and Kasaragod Lok Sabha constituencies on Sunday, following the finding of bogus voting, drew good response from voters, political leadership here voiced their scepticism about the exercise.
Talking to reporters after a meeting to commemorate late party leader E.K. Nayanar at the E.K. Nayanar Academy here on Sunday, CPI(M) district secretary M.V. Jayarajan said that the Election Commission should consider if it was right to ‘punish’ 1,000-odd voters in each booth by ordering repoll instead of initiating penal action against the few people who had cast bogus votes.
He feared that the repoll order would create a wrong precedence.
He also exuded confidence that the Left Democratic Front would improve its performance in all the seven polling booths where repolling was held.
‘Sought only action’
K. Sudhakaran, the UDF candidate in the Kannur Lok Sabha constituency, also sounded sceptical about the repoll. Talking to reporters here, he said that the UDF had not demanded repoll in Kannur.
It had demanded initiation of legal action against those who had resorted to bogus voting, he said.