Repolling peaceful at 31 booths in Madhya Pradesh

Bhopal, Nov 30 (IANS) Repolling at 31 polling booths spread over 14 assembly constituencies in Madhya Pradesh passed off peacefully Sunday with 63.35 percent of electorate casting their votes, officials said.

The Election Commission of India ordered a repoll at these places after complaints of electoral irregularities and defects in electronic voting machines (EVMs) during the polling, Madhya Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer J.S. Mathur said.

The state went to polls Thursday to elect a new 230-member state legislative assembly.

The repoll was ordered on the basis of reports provided by various district administrations to the commission. The reasons for repoll, he said, included failure and damage of the EVMs, violence at booths and errors by polling staff.

Repoll was held at 13 booths in Bhind, six in Morena, three in Tikamgarh, two in Indore and one each in Sagar, Shajapur, Shivpuri, Jabalpur, Rajgarh, Singrauli and Chhatarpur districts.

In the 2003 assembly elections, repoll was ordered at 68 polling centres.