Counting of votes for Delhi University Student Elections (DUSU) on Thursday has been suspended due to fault in six EVMs.

Following the suspension, some of the students created ruckus at a community hall near Kingsway Camp here amid tight security.

According to RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) spokesperson Monika Chaudhary, ”the counting of votes has been stopped, for now, the Delhi University officials will make a decision about the poll results by today evening”.

Meanwhile, ABVP is demanding the counting to be resumed, while Congress Student wing National Student Union of India (NSUI) is demanding re-election.

The counting of votes for DUSU elections, which began at 8 am on Thursday, to elect students to the posts of president, vice-president, secretary and joint secretary, now has to wait.

Heavy security was deployed outside the counting centre, as there was a scuffle between the members of NSUI and ABVP following the suspension of counting of votes.

As counting of votes was suspended following technical glitches in six EVMs, NSUI national-in-charge, Ruchi Gupta took to Twitter and said, ”NSUI was winning DUSU President and Secretary after 6 rounds. Then 6 EVMs started malfunctioning and EC wanted to set those aside. How is it that machines which were working till yesterday during polling are no longer working during counting? Clearly, some sabotage to help ABVP.”

NSUI was winning DUSU President and Secretary after 6 rounds. Then 6 EVMs started malfunctioning and EC wanted to set those aside. How is it that machines which were working till yesterday during polling are no longer working during counting? Clearly some sabotage to help ABVP

— Ruchi Gupta (@guptar) September 13, 2018

The main contestants for the DUSU presidential post are Ankiv Baisoya from ABVP, Sunny Chhillar from NSUI. The AISA-CYSS alliance has fielded Abhigyan, a Political Science student.

Earlier on Wednesday, the polling was conducted for morning colleges in both North and South Campus colleges between 8.30 a.m and 1 p.m, while polling for evening colleges started at 3 p.m and continued till 7.30 p.m.

“Everything remained peaceful in the first round of voting. There was no incident of any EVM glitch anywhere,” Chief Election Officer Vijay Kaul said.

The total voting percentage for morning colleges — which form bulk of the 58 colleges affiliated with the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) where polling happened — was 43.87 per cent, according to the university official.

In all, over 450 Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were used for colleges in both campuses for students to cast their ballot. The voting percentage for the evening colleges could not be ascertained since the EVMs were still coming to the counting centre from various locations until late in the evening.

After a poor performance in 2015, the student wing of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS), has joined the fray this year by partnering with leftist group All India Students’ Association (AISA), affiliated with CPI-Marxist-Leninist.

The other two strong groups in contention for the four central panel posts of President, Vice President, Secretary and Joint secretary are the Congress-backed National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) and the RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

Although there are several contenders, Ankiv Basoya and Sunny Chhillar of NSUI and ABVP, respectively, are betted to be the strongest ones for the post of President. The two groups have in the past also kept the four posts between them.

(With input from agencies)