Pune: Voting for the Assembly elections has commenced in 21 constituencies across the district (Pune Assembly Election 2024). In the first two hours, a voter turnout of 5.53% was recorded. However, during the mock poll conducted earlier to test the efficiency of the machines, the district administration reported that 52 EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines) had malfunctioned. Additionally, 28 control units and 45 VVPATs (Voter-verified paper audit trail) were also found to be non-functional.
Although actual voting started at 7 AM, the Central Election Commission had instructed all polling stations to conduct mock polls at 5:30 AM. Mock polls are conducted to verify the efficiency of all voting machines, including EVMs, control units, and VVPATs. Accordingly, mock polls were conducted at 8,462 polling stations in the district.
Among these, 52 EVMs were found to be malfunctioning. These 52 EVMs were replaced with spare voting machines, and 28 control units and 45 VVPATs were also found to be non-functional, which were replaced from the reserve stock, as informed by the district administration. The highest number of malfunctioning EVMs were reported from the Bhor constituency (total 7), followed by 6 in the Indapur constituency. In the Pune Cantonment constituency, 5 EVMs were found to be non-functional and were immediately replaced. The district administration clarified that no machine had malfunctioned in the first half-hour, i.e., until 7:30 AM, after the actual voting began at 7 AM.
