Team Herald
QUEPEM: In a mysterious miscount that left election staff and candidates bewildered, 299 votes were tallied from ward 4 of Quepem’s Avedem village on counting day, when only 275 votes were actually cast during the polls on August 10. While aspersions were cast about the possibility of bogus voting, election staff claimed it was just a printing error. The puzzling development prompted the ward’s defeated candidates to take Quepem’s Returning Officer Pratap Rao Gaokar to task with questions as to how the number of votes counted could possibly exceed the number cast, since the ballot boxes were carefully sealed and stored.
Seven candidates contested the polls from ward 4 of Avedem panchayat.
Gaokar said the miscount was the result of a printing error in the counting sample. “When the defeated candidates questioned us, we checked the documents prepared at the time of counting, and it was clear that only 275 votes were cast. An hour after the counting, the candidates who raised these questions did not even ask for a recount, but I sat down with all my officers and performed a recount anyway,” said Gaokar.
He explained that one of the seven contestants Rupesh Kothambikar only received 29 votes, but 54 were mistakenly printed on the documents. The error was later rectified, Gaokar said.
