Thiruvananthapuram: Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Teeka Ram Meena on Monday confirmed incidents of bogus voting by three persons at the polling booth of Pilathara AUP School in Kasargod constituency. However, EC is yet to confirm alleged bogus voting by another person.
The commission arrived at the conclusion after vetting the video footage of the voting as well as studying the report by Kannur district collector. Thus CPM panchayat member Saleena N P, Padmini and Sumayya K P are found to have cast bogus votes at the booth.
Where Padmini cast two votes in the same booth, both Saleena and Sumayya cast bogus votes in booth number 19 of Pilathara AUP School. In truth, they had to vote in booth number 17 and 24, respectively.
Another person reportedly accompanying a voter cast bogus vote, it is suspected. Meanwhile, CPM camp sticks to the claim that there was no bogus voting, but what happened was a case of ‘open voting’.
However, according to election commission there is no ‘open vote’ as per the rule. What is generally termed as ‘open vote’ is but the ‘companion vote’, which in local parlance is called, ‘open vote’.