The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Sunday ordered repolling on February 7 in a booth in South Goa's Margao constituency after polling was called off on Saturday following failure on part of the election officials to follow set electoral procedures.
In a letter addressed to the Goa’s Chief Electoral Officer, Secretary to the Commission Sumit Mukherjee also instructed that the political parties and their candidates be informed in writing about the fresh poll.
"Please ensure that wide publicity is done about it in media and also by beating drums (“davandi”) in the areas of that polling station," Mr. Mukherjee said.
Polling at booth no. 8 at the government primary school in Aquem, Margao, was cancelled after election officials posted at the booth failed to delete the sample votes which were logged in the electronic voting machines (EVMs). According to electoral procedures, sample votes have to be deleted before the actual voting begins.
According to final figures released by the election officials in Goa on Sunday, the overall voting percentage in Goa (excluding the count of votes in the polling booth scheduled for repoll) for the Assembly election was at 82.23%.
251 candidates were contesting the State assembly elections, while 11.10 lakh voters were eligible to cast ballot.
