Wadala booth machine malfunctions and voters twiddle their thumbs and to be inked-fingers for more than half an hour
Nikhil Desai
A malfunctioning machine delayed people from casting their votes at a Wadala constituency on Monday evening. The machine saw people queue up at booth No 13 at Amulakh Amichand School on Rafi Ahmad Kidwai Road in 180 Wadala Assembly constituency, "on a day when we could hardly see any queues at other polling booths," said a local, Nikhil Desai.
Desai, who is well-known in the area because of his activism, and taking up local issues with representatives said, "I went to booth no 13, my polling booth late in the afternoon. I saw people scattered about, there was significant police bandobast. People were not being allowed to go inside. I learnt that the EVM was malfunctioning and some talk was on about repairs.
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People had been waiting for more than 20 minutes, and a queue had formed of at least 50 persons. I told the officers to let us vote in booth no 14 and 15, (the school was divided into three booths for convenience) as there was no line there, but was told it was not allowed. Then, some people came and worked on the machine. There was a debate on how to 'verify' if it was working. But it malfunctioned again."
Desai said that there should have been a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in case of malfunction, but it was not in place. Many irate voters said the booth should extend the voting time by half an hour. Some voters went home. Even Desai went home. He said, that after more than half an hour or so, he got a message on his phone saying the machine had re-started. Apparently, the machine re-started after some more persons were dispatched to fix it. Finally he cast his vote. He stated, "I do not know how many people waited there or came back to vote. When we criticise low turnout and there is general cynicism by the people, leaders must also introspect about why the public reacts like this, and why there is no procedure in place in case of such eventualities."
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