Ahead of counting of votes for Punjab zila parishad and panchayat samiti election results, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Friday urged the State Election Commission (SEC) to order re-poll at 110 booths and defer counting of votes scheduled to be taken up on Saturday.

The SAD also sought complete videography of all counting centres, including halls and outer complex besides presence of observes throughout while counting of votes remained in progress.

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In a letter to the SEC, spokesman and senior vice president of the party Daljeet Singh Cheema thanked the commission for having ordered re-poll at 54 polling stations spread over eight districts. He however claimed that no decision was taken for re-poll at another 110 captured booths.

Cheema annexed a list of 164 booths which he claimed were captured by Congress workers led by party leaders, including some ministers and legislators.

He urged the SEC to immediately hold inquiry and order re-poll to restore peoples’ faith in democracy and salvage its credibility.

Apprehending “rigging and hijacking of counting”, Cheema feared that specimen signatures of candidates which officials had taken from on unfilled proformas may be misused while declaring results. He urged the SEC to change the proforma and ensure that contestants were required to sign only after declaration of results.

The fate of 354 zila parishad members and 2,900 panchayat samiti members will be decided. There are 22 zila parishads and 150 panchayat samitis in the state. There are a total of 1,27,87,395 registered voters, comprising 60,99,053 women and 97 third-gender voters.

While the ruling Congress is hoping for a “clean sweep” in these polls, opposition parties ~ SAD, Bharatiya Janata Party, and Aam Aadmi Party ~ have alleged large scale booth capturing by the ruling party in elections that were held after 10 years.

Thirty-three candidates had earlier been declared elected unopposed to zila parishads and 369 nominees were declared elected unopposed to panchayat samitis. Majority of these candidates belonged to the Congress.