Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, 2 May: Independent candidate in the Arunachal West MP election, Techi Rana, on Thursday appealed to the chief electoral officer (CEO) to conduct re-polling at 24-Kheel polling station in Sagalee in Papum Pare district.
Addressing mediaper-sons at the Arunachal Press Club here, Bikki Bagra (a member of Rana’s team) said that the voting process at the Kheel polling station was “compromised.”
“Undermining the spirit of free, fair and transparent election process, proxy voters were allowed to cast their votes,” he said.
“Casting proxy votes is a violation of the Representation of People’s Act, 1951, Article 60 (a), and Rule 49 (0) of the Election Conduct Rule, 1961,” said Bagra.
“Some of the supporters have cast over 10 proxy votes in favour of their party,” claimed Bagra.
He added that an audio clip regarding this has already been submitted to the CEO, and informed that the clip contains a discussion between the polling officer and the INC’s polling agent regarding the voting process.
Bagra further claimed that the audio clip “also confirms the involvement of the returning officer offering to favour fellow polling agent on good faith.”
Appealing to the CEO to “initiate swift and time-bound action against all the erring polling officers, including the presiding officer, who failed to discharge their duties,”Rana’s team said that “it is time to uphold the basic principle of free and fair election process by the higher authorities.”
The team pointed out that violation of the Representation of People’s Act, 1951, Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, and Central Civil Services (Conduct) Rules, 1964 has been made.
It informed that a representation regarding the matter has been submitted to the CEO.
