Blatant breaches of secrecy of ballot in Athani

In the blatant breaches of the secrecy of the ballot, many voters in Athani Assembly constituency on Thursday clicked selfies with EVMs and VVPATs while voting and uploaded the same on the social media.

The EVM selfies doing the rounds on social media in the taluk.

Interestingly, even Independent candidate Srishail Halladamal received several posts on his WhatsApp of
voters casting their votes to him.

On social media

A similar incident was reported from Ranebennur Assembly constituency. Manjaiah Chavadi, a BJP worker, took a selfie of him casting his vote to his party candidate at
booth number 1 in Ranebennur, and posted the same on social media along with a description: “My vote is for the party which is steering the state and the country towards Ram Rajya.”

The multiple breaches of secrecy of voting have
raised questions on the integrity of the booth officials and doubts over free and fair elections.

However, no complaints have been lodged on the aforementioned incidents of breaching the laws on secrecy of ballots.

Polling for the Athani and Ranebennur bypolls, along with 13 other constituencies in the state, was held on Thursday