Voters were allowed to vote if they showed their booth slips
Kaliammal, 71, from Ratchakapuram, voted with a booth slip that had the picture of a man instead of hers.
Coimbatore: Voters were allowed to vote if they showed their booth slips, giving adequate room for bogus voting and malpractices. Unlike the parliamentary elections, the voters did not have to show any proof of identity to cast their vote on Thursday.Only voters without booth slips were asked to bring EPIC card or passport or driving licence or PAN card or passbook as proof of identity.
For instance, Kaliammal (71) from Ratchakapuram voted at a booth in Sowripalayam with a booth slip that had the picture of a 'man'. The age in the slip was also written erroneously as 81 instead of 71, which is her correct age.
"There was a photo of a man in the place of my mother's photo in her booth slip. However, the polling staff allowed her to vote and did not insist on any ID card," said V. Poongothai from Sowripalayam.An election officer told DC that the polling staff were told to confirm the identity of a person before allowing to vote. "They would check the ID cards if they had any suspicion and so there are no chances for bogus voting," he said.
However, the Opposition parties claimed that there was largescale bogus voting because the polling staff did not insist on proof of identity."At a booth in Kuniamuthur, a Muslim man was told to go away by polling staff as his vote was cast by someone else, almost one-and-a-half hours ahead of his arrival. The polling staff was seen arguing with him that they allowed some other person to vote as he carried his booth slip. This is not an isolated incident as similar bogus voting has occurred in several other booths due to lack of proper verification," said BJP candidate R. Nandakumar.
( Source : dc correspondent )
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