Hyderabad: For the first time after a long gap, several thousand votes were 'rejected' by the election authorities in the just-concluded by-polls in 12 Assembly constituencies of Andhra Pradesh.
State Chief Electoral Officer I V Subba Rao said here this evening that as many as 19,954 votes were found invalid and hence rejected in five Assembly segments where paper ballots were used in the by-elections.
In each of these five constituencies, over 65 candidates majority of them independents were in the fray.
"This might have caused some confusion in the voters because of which they stamped on the ballots incorrectly. All such votes were rejected," Subba Rao said.
In Yellareddy constituency in Nizamabad district, 5378 votes were rejected. In Huzurabad, Siricilla and Korutla segments in Karimnagar district 5017, 4201 and 2898 votes were rejected respectively. In Warangal West 2460 votes were rejected.
In seven other constituencies where Electronic Voting Machines were used, the total number of votes rejected was 69 with Nizamabad Urban accounting for 30 of them followed by 18 in Chennuru (SC) segment. These were all postal ballots.
Since each candidate in the five constituencies, where paper ballots were used, got elected with huge margins, none had any complaints over the rejected votes.
