TN bypoll: High polling percentage under EC scanner

Madurai, June 27 (UNI) Fuelling speculations of repolling in certain booths of the Madurai West Assembly constituency, election observers today scrutinised documents at 16 polling booths which recorded a voter turnout of more than 85 per cent in the bypoll held yesterday.

Following complaints of bogus voting in seven other booths, the observers took up document verification of those polling stations as well.

According to official sources, scrutiny of documents would be taken up in cases of very high voter turnout as per the rules of the Election Commission.

The scrutinising work was carried out by the three observers, Ajay Thyagi, Siva Sankaran and Ganesh Rao, accompanied by District Collector G Sundara Murthy and Returning Officer Dinesh Oliver Ponraj.

The observers said a report would be forwarded to the EC for taking necessary action. This was informed to the candidates they added.

Counting of votes polled in the byelection held under the cover of a security blanket thrown all over the constituency was scheduled for June 29.

UNI