Rats have caused chaos in the latest round of voting in elections in India after they destroyed dozens of electronic vote counting machines by eating the cables.
With more than 800 million voters, India uses the machines to reduce the time in declaring results compared to the old paper ballot system.
But voters in Ghaziabad, a town close to the capital New Delhi, were furious when told that rats had ruined the machines, which were stored in a strongroom near a wholesale wheat market.
There are 814 million people eligible to vote during India’s elections which take six weeks to complete, voters have to attend the polling station with identification, pictured, in order to cast their ballot
The voting machines were attacked by rats in Ghaziabad, pictured, which is on the outskirts of New Dehli
‘We had taken all possible measures to protect the vote counting machines,’ said a senior official of the Ghaziabad district administration.
‘We realise how important it is to ensure that they are not harmed in any way.
‘But rodent trouble was something we had not expected at all.’
It is understood that officials have spread 25 packets of rat poison in each room holding the voting machines to protect them until they are counted on May 16.
Due to the country’s size, it takes six weeks for the entire country to vote.
India introduced Electronic Voting Machines in 1998 because of the logistical problem of counting more than 800 million paper ballots.
The 814 million voters choose 543 members of the lower house of India’s parliament.
Abhinav Sharma, 24, said he waited for two hours in sweltering weather at a polling station in Lucknow, but was reluctant to vote for any of the candidates.
‘Most politicians are thieves. They only contest elections to get rich quick. But I didn’t want to waste my vote, so I have cast my vote.’
Whenever the EVMs are transported across the massive country, they are protected by soldiers to prevent anyone from rigging the vote by tampering with the machines, pictured
Source: Daily Mail, UK