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Recounting resumes after objections

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI NOV. 13. The recounting of all votes polled in the Karur parliamentary constituency during the September 1999 elections, taken up today as per a November 7 High Court directive, was stalled for about three hours owing to objections raised by counsel for the AIADMK candidate, M. Chinnasamy.

(Mr. Chinnasamy defeated the DMK's K.C. Palanisamy by a margin of 2,847 votes. The counting officials declared a total of 16,906 votes invalid. Justice A. Ramamurthi observed that the petitioner (Mr. Palanisamy) had made out a prima facie case for the recount. He also directed the Registrar (Administration) to supervise the re-counting, to be done on the court premises itself).

The incumbent MP's counsel, who unsuccessfully pleaded before Mr. Justice Ramamurthi for postponement of re-counting earlier in the day, raised objections to an alleged `mismatch' between the declaration number and the ballot number as found on the postal ballots. The counting, however, was resumed at around 3.30 p.m.

The Registrar, Mr. Venkatesan, has drafted 30 High Court staff members for the re-count, which is expected to last for more than a week.

According to sources, about 16,000 votes were counted today, and of these, nearly 100 were `doubtful' votes. Re-counting, which ended at 7 p.m. today, would resume tomorrow at 9 a.m.

Though the lack of experience on the part of court staff in counting is proving a handicap, the re-counting is expected to pick up momentum in the coming days, as the ballots have already been divided candidate-wise.

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