This story is from May 20, 2019

A tale of two ballot units, snags and voters in Himachal Pradesh

Voting was delayed in many polling stations in Manali and Kangra on Sunday due to technical snags and unskilled staff handling poll duties. Most polling stations had long queues at 7am, and people had to wait for two to three hours as voting got delayed due to technical glitches.
A tale of two ballot units, snags and voters in Himachal Pradesh
Himachal ex-CM Prem Kumar Dhumal and MP son Anurag Thakur with the entire family
MANALI/DHARAMSHALA: Voting was delayed in many polling stations in Manali and Kangra on Sunday due to technical snags and unskilled staff handling poll duties. Most polling stations had long queues at 7am, and people had to wait for two to three hours as voting got delayed due to technical glitches. Also, many were confused at the sight of two ballot units in the polling booths.
In Chamba, people boycotted elections over some local issues.
As many as 2,083 polling stations in Mandi parliamentary constituency used two ballot units to accommodate election symbols of 17 candidates confusing many voters.
"I was confused to see two voting machines kept together. There were many symbols on them. I took a long time in finding out where my candidate's symbol was placed. There was even a point when I wanted to call the polling agent and help me cast my vote," Vidya Devi, who voted on Sunday, told TOI.
At Dhalpur polling booth, the officials forgot to erase the mock poll data. The poll panel took swift action and replaced the presiding officer with the district election officer.
There were reports of election boycott from some villages. Gue, the farthest polling station of Spiti, which has 167 registered voters, boycotted election without any prior notice or demand. The villagers were apparently unhappy with the government inaction in frequent flooding problem that they face. Only five votes were cast at the Geu polling station, that too by the poll staff, a district spokesperson said.

Assistant election officer at Kaza, Jeewan Singh Negi said Gue is at quite a distance from Kaza and he had visited the village on Saturday to take stock of the poll preparations. "I did not get any clue about boycott. The area has no connectivity. We received information about the boycott at 1pm and we sent an officer to hear their grievance and convince the people. Till now we don't have an exact idea about what happened," he said.
According to agency reports, the voters of Gue village on the Sino-India border in Himachal Pradesh boycotted the Lok Sabha poll as the government "failed" to find a permanent solution to frequent floods they face. "We have taken the decision as no government has found a permanent solution to frequent floods due to a nearby nullah," a villager said.
In Kullu, voters at Meha also boycotted the election for their unfulfilled demand of road connectivity since 1994. Of the 372 votes, nobody had exercised their franchise till noon. After this, Manali SDM Ashwani Kumar sent PWD officials to convince the residents and only 35 had voted till evening.
"We have received reports of technical snags in EVM machines, but later they were fixed and voting went smoothly," said an election official Pankaj Sharma in Kangra district.
In Chamba district, villagers of Saho in Pangi area boycotted the elections. The population of this village is around 300, but none of the voters turned out till late evening. Election officials approached the village head and asked him to urge people to cast their votes, it was told.
VIllage pradhan Gulshan said they were not going to vote because "Every time politicians come here and make promises but never fulfill them. Now, it's time to adopt no-work no-vote policy as we have no education, road or health facilities," he said.
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