India, April 22 -- The Election Commission of India (ECI) has issued several directives to presiding officers at polling booths, particularly linked to tampering with the candidate buttons, sources in the poll panel said.

The poll panel has asked officers to ensure that the candidate buttons are clearly visible and not covered with tape, glue or any other material. The ECI has also said that chemicals, including colour, ink or perfume cannot be used on the buttons to reveal the secrecy of the votes, adding that such incidents can be considered as EVM tampering.

Presiding officers have been asked to immediately report such incidents at polling booths to the respective returning officers. "All such cases are likely to fall under Tampering...