Hundreds of voters, including the elder brother of President Kalam, who had gone to polling booths to exercise their franchise for the 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu could not locate their names on voters lists.
Hundreds of voters, including Muthu Mohammed Meeran Labbai, the elder brother of President APJ Abdul Kalam, who had gone to polling booths on Monday to exercise their franchise for the 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu could not locate their names on voters lists and had to return disappointed.
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There were also numerous complaints of non-functioning of electronic voting machines leading to delay in polling. In some cases polling was stopped mid-way to enable rectification of the EVMs, police said.
In the metropolis hundreds of voters complained of their names being omitted or deleted from voters lists. Some registered their protests.
Presiding officers and poll officials told disappointed voters that nothing could be done if their names did not figure in the lists.
The names of the President's 86-year-old brother Labbai and his son Jaillaluddin, hailing from Rameswaram island, did not figure on the voters lists.
Chief Minister Jayalalithaa told reporters that many voters in her area too could not exercise their franchise as their names were not in the voters list. A Kancheepuram report said several voters, including some AIADMK partymen, who found their names not listed, had heated exchanges with officials.
An AIADMK ward councillor Suleiman claimed that over 500 partymen could not cast their votes as their names could not be found.
In the city defective EVMs were replaced with new ones or set right in 80 booths and the polling commenced with "slight delay", City Police Commissioner R Natraj said.