Punjab polls: VVPAT machines develop technical snag at some places

Chandigarh: Several voters across the state experienced problems during the polling process today, as a large number of voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines, installed for the first time in the ongoing Punjab Assembly elections, developed a technical snag.

Reports of a large number of machines not able to function due to technical snag have come in from Amritsar, Muktsar and Sangrur district. Due to the problem, polling had to be called off a number of times, Punjab Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) VK Singh said, adding these machines were replaced by others.

The election commission has installed VVPAT machines in 33 of the 117 constituencies for the assembly polls and two assembly segments as part of the Amritsar by-polls.

The election commission raised apprehensions regarding performance of the paper-trail machine, which gives a receipt to the voter, verifying the vote casted in favour of the candidate, against whose name the button is pressed.