Bhubaneswar: Anyone trying to disturb the election process would face jail term upto three years, Orissa's chief electoral officer, R Balakrishnan, warned today (Apr 25, 2004).

If anyone attempted to disturb the polling process, capture a booth, snatch or destroy electronic voting machines, prevent voters from casting their votes or cause disturbance in the vicinity of a polling booth, the same would be viewed as serious election offences, Balakrishnan said in a statement.

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The culprits could face jail term upto three years for such offences, he said.

Special measures had been initiated to ensure free, fair and peaceful polling in the coastal plains where polling would be conducted tomorrow (Apr 26, 2004) to elect representatives to 10 Lok Sabha and 70 Assembly constituencies, the CEO said.

Disturbances had been reported in several constituencies in the first phase polling held on April 20 leading to suspension of polling in 17 booths. Re-polling was conducted on April 22 last.