Political Diary

As if the tension of the elections exacerbated by the long wait for the results wasn’t enough, candidates of Giddalur assembly segment in Prakasam district spent a sleepless Monday night for an altogether different reason. The heavy downpour during the day led to water entering the strongroom where the electronic voting machines (EVMs) were stored. As panic spread, district collector and returning officer K Devanand on Monday night rushed to Quiss Engineering College where the EVMs were stored. Getting into damage control mode, the collector immediately alerted the returning officer of Giddalur constituency, Ongole municipal commissioner Ravindrababu and asked him to inform all the candidates to be present at the strongroom by Tuesday morning so that they could do the damage assessment in their presence. As Congress candidate Chandrasekhara Yadav, TDP candidate Chegireddy Lingareddy and PRP nominee Anna Rambabu rushed to the Quiss college, the strongroom was opened in the presence of the election observers. Luckily, all the EVMs were found safe and undamaged. Some technicians, who accompanied the candidates, said the machines are fully water-proof and the software would not be damaged. The staff even cleaned some of the wet EVMs without disturbing the machines and their seals. The entire exercise lasted nearly two hours. Finally, with the candidates expressing satisfaction over the safety of the EVMs, the election officials had decided to keep them at the same centre till the counting day. Devanand added that the EVMs stored at other centres are completely safe. “There is no cause for worry,” he said. Meanwhile, CEO Subba Rao said the EVMs are kept in a secured box with no chance of water entering the machine. “Even if water enters the box the data will be intact for more than a month,” he said. On the complaints of funny sounds emanating from the machines at two to three places in Anantapur district, the CEO clarified that they were due to battery discharge. “Even if the battery gets discharged, the data in the machines will be intact,” he added. Further, he said the collectors and the SPs are regularly monitoring the strongrooms. Even the candidates are allowed to place their private security at the strongrooms