Voting peaceful in Central Chennai – The Hindu

Many voters queued up as early as 6.30 a.m. at polling booths in Central Chennai.

Many first-time voters as well as senior citizens said they voted without any hassle. Polling went on smoothly at most booths.

Pachaiyappan, a physically challenged person, said, “It is important to exercise my franchise. I came in early because I work at a nursery and wanted to get back in time to water my plants.”

There were a few instances of EVMs having developed snags.

At SIET College in Teynampet, women had to wait for nearly half-an-hour before polling began around 7.30 a.m.

As voting progressed, an EVM showed an error in one of the booths in Anna Nagar and it took more than one hour to set it right, officials said.

At a booth in Arumbakkam, an EVM stopped working, requiring an hour to fix it.

At a Villivakkam booth, voters complained that voting was very slow, and they were made to wait for an hour. Madhavan S., a senior citizen, said, “There are no fans outside and it is very sultry. At least, they should speed up the process a little so that we need not stand for so long.”

At Perambur, chaos prevailed for a while at a booth as a woman alleged that she could not register her vote.