AP: Naidu writes to EC seeking extension of polling time

Anantapuram (Andhra Pradesh) [India], April 11 (ANI): Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has written a letter to the Election Commission of India (ECI), requesting an extension of polling time in the state to compensate for the time lost due to reported technical glitches in EVMs in several polling booths.
Polling in a few districts of Andhra Pradesh was disrupted briefly on Thursday morning due to malfunctioning of electronic voting machines (EVM).
Naidu wrote in his letter: “A number of complaints are being received from the contesting candidates, chief election agents and the media that in several cases EVMs did not function to start the polling at 7 am. As a result commencement of polling got delayed between half an hour to one hour. However, polling has commenced in those stations after repair/replacement of EVMs. In all these cases it is necessary that polling time is extended to compensate the time lost in repairing/replacing the EVMs.”
Polling at Kanchikacherla village of Krishna district had to be halted till the machines were rectified or replaced. Voting was delayed at booth numbers 196, 198 and 200 of the region. A similar situation was witnessed at booth numbers 141 and 142 of the Ummalada village of Visakhapatnam district.
Voters at booth number 154 in Rajam town of Srikakulam district had to wait for some time to exercise their franchise because of a technical glitch in the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) unit installed there.
Voting is underway for 25 Lok Sabha and 175 Assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh. The results will be out on May 23. (ANI)