Dwivedi Condemns Baseless Rumours About Defective EVMs in AP Elections

Amaravati: The AP Chief Electoral officer Gopalakrishna Dwivedi announced on Thursday morning that polling was cotninuing smoothly across the state to cast their franchise freely. Dwivedi cautioned voters not to be swayed by false propaganda. He also clarified that there were long queues outside polling booths and that the voter turnout would be high.

The AP CEO appealed to voters not to believe baseless rumours about technical glitches in EVMs which were limited to very few centres, he said. While the figure tends to be a dynamic one, at 11 am only 344 machines out of 90000 plus EVMs across the state had developed snags, he said. He condemned the statements of leaders who claimed that 30% of the EVMs were mal-functioning, in response to a question on Chandrababu Naidu's statement.

He said that he had a list of 344 EVMs from all over the state and if someone (including Chandrababu) can produce a list of 27000 plus EVMs as proof, there would certainly be repolling where required. The EC was open to the process of a free and fair election, he clarified, adding that baseless allegations were of no signicance and cannot be acted upon. Wherever there were snags in these 344 EVMs, the technical staff was on the job of fixing the machines, he further said. All voters would be allowed to exercise their franchise, he further said.

There are 45900 polling centres with over 90000 EVMs, he pointed out.

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