Slow pace of polling, long queues frustrate Manipur voters

Slow pace of polling was reported from a number of booths during the first phase of assembly elections in Manipur on Monday, with voters claiming a long time was taken in identifying them through a mobile app.

Some of the voters said they had to wait in the queue for over three hours, making them frustrated.

"We have come to know of certain polling stations where people have complained of long time taken to cast their votes. We have taken note of that and ensured that those who came before 4 pm were allowed to vote," Chief Electoral Officer Rajesh Agrawal told PTI.

The official voting time is from 7 am to 4 pm.

Also read: Manipur records over 78% polling in Assembly elections till 5 pm

Agrawal, however, insisted that such polling stations were very few as, by 5 pm, 78.03 per cent of around 12.09 lakh voters exercised their franchise.

He said that among the reasons for the slow pace of voting in those polling stations are instances of elderly voters taking a lot of time and glitches in EVMs.

Yumlembam Ranjana, a voter of Lamsang constituency, claimed that she had arrived at the polling station at 12 noon and had to wait for around 4.30 hours to vote.

"It took me over three hours. They took a very long time in identification of voter through some mobile app," said Chanambam Sumita, a voter in Singjamei constituency.

Pheiroijam Shyamananda, who lives in a place under Patsoi constituency, said never before it had taken him three hours to cast his vote.

"The problem was mainly the voter identification by the mobile app which was very slow," he said.

One of the mobile applications developed by the Election Commission is Booth App which facilitates faster identification of voters using quick search of the electors based on serial number/EPIC number/name.

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