Hyderabad: Several thousands votes were
found invalid by the election authorities in the just-
concluded by-polls in 12 Assembly constituencies of Andhra
Pradesh.
State Chief Electoral Officer I V Subba Rao said as many
as 19,954 votes were found invalid in five Assembly segments
where paper ballots were used in the by-elections.
In each of these five constituencies, over 65 candidates
- majority of them independents - were in the fray.
"This might have caused some confusion in the voters
because of which they stamped on the ballots incorrectly. All
such votes were rejected," Subba Rao said.
In Yellareddy constituency in Nizamabad district, 5,378
votes were rejected. In Huzurabad, Siricilla and Korutla
segments in Karimnagar district 5017, 4201 and 2898 votes were
rejected respectively. In Warangal West 2,460 votes were
rejected.
In seven other constituencies where Electronic Voting
Machines were used, the total number of votes rejected was 69
with Nizamabad Urban accounting for 30 of them followed by 18
in Chennuru (SC) segment. These were all postal ballots.
Since each candidate in the five constituencies, where
paper ballots were used, got elected with huge margins, none
had any complaints over the rejected votes.
PTI
