Kerala local body survey results: There was a problem with the voting machine, said N Venugopal.
Kochi (Kerala):
Congressional mayoral candidate N Venugopal has lost to the BJP candidate by one vote, in the Kochi Corporation North Island district in local state body elections.
“It was a safe seat. I can’t say what happened. There was no problem in the match. There was a problem with the voting machine. That may be the reason for the BJP victory,” Venugopal said.
“I have not decided to go to court on the issue of the voting machine until now. I will see what exactly happened.”
Vote counting for local body polls in Kerala is underway at 244 counting centers across the state.
With all COVID-19 protocols in place, the vote counting of the Kerala local body elections began at 8am on Wednesday. Final results are expected at 1 pm.
State Elections Commissioner V Bhaskaran has said that mail-in votes, including special votes, will be counted first and EVM votes later.
District collectors in various districts of Kerala have enforced Article 144 of the CrPC on the basis of reports from the concerned district chiefs of police. Clashes between party workers were reported in many places in these districts during the election.
The CPM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF), the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) were in the fray over local body polls in Kerala.
Elections for local bodies were held in three phases in Kerala. The 78.64 percent of electoral participation was registered in the third and last phase of the elections of the local organisms. The second phase registered an electoral participation of 76.38% and in the first phase it was 72.67%.
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