ECI suspends PO and APO in EVM damage incident, 8 teams formed to arrest MLA Pinnelli
Vijayawada: Chief Electoral Officer Mukesh Kumar Meena has suspended the Polling Officer (PO) and Assistant Polling Officer (APO) on duty as they “did not give correct information” about the EVM damage incident at the Palvai Gate polling booth on May 13.
Eight police teams were assigned to search and arrest Macherla MLA Pinnelli Ramakrishna Reddy, who is absconding after the incident.
Responding to the release of the EVM ballot incident video, the CEO affirmed, "The scenes of Pinnelli vandalising the EVM at the Palvai Gate polling booth were not released by EC. Somewhere during the investigation, it leaked out of someone's hands.”
Meena told the media here on Thursday that eight police teams, headed by SP and DSP rank officials, were put on the job of arresting the Macherla MLA.
He said it was improper on the part of Telugu Desam leaders to visit the injured party activists in the Macherla constituency now as the situation was slowly coming under control. He appealed to the political leaders not to go to Macherla.
Meena said he would tour the state on May 25 to inspect the strongrooms.
He conducted a review meeting with all the district election officers on Thursday and advised them to make advance arrangements to declare the results quickly and accurately. He held a video conference with the election officials of all the districts regarding the counting arrangements.
He asked them to take strong security steps at the counting centres and ensure that there are no disputes in the counting process.
Special media centres would be established at the counting centres. Counting-related details would be communicated to the candidates and agents in advance. The EVMs movement routes from strongrooms, as also different routes for candidates and agents would be arranged with barricades and signs, he said.
Separate vote-counting tables would be set up for the Assembly and Parliament polls. The counting of postal ballots would start first and the results would be uploaded immediately in the Encore web application maintained by the ECI.
The CEO instructed the officials not to allow unauthorised persons and anyone without his or her identity card into the counting centres. The three-tier security will continue at the strongrooms till the counting is completed.
Additional CEOs Koteswara Rao and Harendhira Prasad and election officers of all districts participated in the video conference from their respective districts.
