A total of 1871 votes were cast in a booth in Assam’s Dima Hasao district, even though 90 people were eligible to exercise their franchise.
The polling station is in the Haflong constituency, which went to the polls in the second phase on April 1. Haflong witnessed 74 per cent polling.
As the incident came to light, the District Election Officer suspended five poll officials of the booth, set up at 107(A) Khotlir LP School, and proposed a repoll.
The suspension order by the Deputy Commissioner-cum-District Election Officer of Dima Hasao was issued on April 2, the next day of polling, but it came to light on Monday morning.
Stating “dereliction of duty”, the Election Commission suspended Seikhosiem Lhangum (Sector Officer), Prahlad Ch Roy (Presiding Officer), Parameswar Charangsa (1st Polling Officer), Swaraj Kanti Das (2nd Polling Officer) and Lalzamlo Thiek (3rd Polling Officer) with immediate effect.
The officials said the voters’ list of the polling station had 90 names, but 181 votes were cast in the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM).
“The head of that interior village refused to accept the voters’ list and brought a list of his own. Then, the people of the village voted according to that list,” an official said.