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New Delhi/Patna: As polling in the first phase of the Bihar Assembly elections began Wednesday morning, the Election Commission of India (ECI) said that over 1 lakh VVPATs, ballot and control units were installed to enable voters exercise their franchise.
These machines have been set up at 31,371 polling stations in 71 Assembly segments in 16 districts of Bihar, where balloting began at 7 am.
In all, 41,689 ballot units, 31,371 control units and 31,371 VVPATs have been deployed in 71 constituencies for the first phase of elections.
Out of these, the replacement rate has been 0.18 per cent for ballot units, 0.26 per cent for control units and 0.53 per cent for VVPATs as per a report at 10 am, it said.
The Commission shared the information following reports about EVM malfunctioning during the polls. In the first phase, 1,066 candidates, including 114 women are in the fray.
Even as the Election Commission said that 18.48 per cent polling was recorded till 11 am during the elections, voters in some districts in Bihar faced inconvenience due to technical glitches in EVMs.
Voters waited in queues for over an hour and some even returned home without casting votes as technical snags affected the functioning of over 75 EVMs or VVPATs in Munger, Arwal, Gaya and Nawada districts of Bihar.
Voters in Gaya, Jahanabad, Aurangabad, Jamui, Bhabhua, Sasaram, Baka, and Kaimur also complained of technical and other errors in EVMs.
Due to this, polling started late by 30 minutes to 2 hours at several places.
In Munger, technical glitches in Electronic Voting Machines or EVMS were reported in polling booths 165 and 231. The polling agents at these booths claimed that one EVM had the name of RJD candidate but the party poll symbol was missing.
Besides, similar glitches were reported at polling booths in Bihiya village in Bhojpur district, booth number 245 in Rohtas district, Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail machine at booth number 26.
Elections are to be held in three phases for the 243 Assembly seats in Bihar. The second phase of voting for 94 seats will be on November 3 and for the third phase of 78 seats will be on November 7. Counting will take place November 10.
IANS
