The Election Commission on Saturday announced that it will conduct re-polling in Uttar Pradesh’s Mahoba Lok Sabha constituency, where an electronic voting machine was missing for about 15 hours earlier this week, after the fourth phase of voting in General Elections. The sub-divisional magistrate has ordered that charges be filed against four election staff and five security forces personnel, an official said.

The re-polling will be conducted on May 6, during the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha elections. Voting will begin at 7 am and end at 6 pm.

On Monday, an electronic voting machine used at a booth in Nogaon Phadna village in Mahoba district went missing after polling closed in the fourth phase of the elections. Officials reportedly noticed that the machine was missing while transporting it to the constituency strongroom in Mahoba town. It was recovered 15 hours later, on Tuesday, with the seal intact, from the waiting room of the village bus stand.

“The machine was mislocated, not lost, as we found it later,” DD Tiwari, the Election Commission’s media officer in Uttar Pradesh, had said on Tuesday. The EVM was used in polling booth 27 in Nogaon Phadna in Panwari block, around 45 km from Mahoba town, said reporter Shantanu Soni. “The EVM was being taken by bus to Mahoba to keep in strong room and got lost at that time,” he had said. “It was later recovered from the waiting room of the bus stand.”