By-election: One extra round of counting held

New Delhi: An extra round of counting was held here on Sunday for the Rajinder Nagar assembly bypoll as the close button of one EVM was found "not pressed", a senior poll official said.

Steps were then taken according to the standard operating procedures laid down by election authorities, the official said.

Every electronic voting machine (EVM) has a "close button" which is to be pressed after the polling exercise is over, the official said.

Counting of votes began as scheduled at 8 am, and as per the plan, 16 rounds were to be held.

"During the process of counting, in one EVM, it was found that the close button was not pressed, so it was set aside and, all the 16 scheduled rounds were first held.

"As per laid down standard operating procedures, the data obtained from the EVM, was compared with the data recorded in Form 17C, which has the account of votes and other details. As it matched, votes lodged in this EVM was counted in a separate round," the official said.

Hence, a total of 17 rounds were held, he said, adding, in case there would have been a mismatch in data, there is another SOP for that.

Third-generation electronic voting machines were used in the Rajinder Nagar bypoll, the official said.