A printing error in the ballot paper by election officials on December 1st led to polling being cancelled in the Old Malakpet division. The polling at GHMC-ward 69 in 26th Division at Old Malakpet was stopped by the authorities after in-correct party symbol belonging to the Communist Party of India (CPI) was printed on the ballot paper. Instead of ears of corn and sickle symbol of the CPI, the hammer, sickle and star symbol of CPI(M) was printed on the ballot paper. This led to a repolling being ordered in the division on Thursday.
Now, on December 1st by the time authorities noticed the printing mistake in the ballot, many people in Old Malakpet division had already cast their votes. There are around 69 polling centres in the division. Now, in order to avoid confusion, the state election commission has instructed polling officers to apply the indelible ink on the middle finger instead of the index finger. For those unversed, an electoral ink, indelible ink, electoral stain or phosphoric ink which is a semi-permanent ink or dye is applied to the forefinger of voters during elections to curb electoral fraud such as double voting. A total of 54,665 voters from this division will exercise their franchise in 69 polling centres and around 350 polling personnel have been deployed for the smooth conduct of polls.
Here six candidates are in the fray from the Old Malakpet ward. The candidates are – TRS nominated Pagilla Shalini, CPI nominated Dr Firdous Fatima, BJP nominated Kanakaboina Renuka, MIM nominated Dr Juweria Fatima, Congress nominated Bugudala Veeramani and Independent candidate Kavitha. With the repolling scheduled on Thursday, the election commission had prohibited exit polls on December 1st. Hence, the exit polls would be out only after 6 PM today.
