Urban body and panchayat elections will be held through modern EVMs for the first time in the country in Madhya Pradesh. The new electronic voting machines have multi-post, multi-vote and multi-result facility. Polling for 8 posts can be held simultaneously through one EVM.
This was informed by Secretary State Election Commission GP Shrivastava at a voter awareness programme at old Benazir College here on Monday where EVMs brought from Hyderabad have been stored. In the first consignment, 600 EVMs have reached.
Shrivastava informed that before deciding about conducting urban body and Panchayat elections through EVMs, the commission had held comprehensive consultations with voters, election-related officers-employees and collectors. He informed that counting will not be held at polling booths this time.
Collector Nishant Warwade said that journalists should widely publicise it so that voters can learn new EVM’s functioning and features. Deputy Secretary Deepak Saxena informed that an EVM Training and Monitoring Application Tool has been evolved. Store room of EVMs in every district has been allotted a Unique Number.
He informed that urban body elections will be held in 2 phases and Panchayat elections in three phases. Additional Collector and District Deputy Election Officer Akshay Singh informed about storage process.
As per an estimate, about 51,000 EVMs will be used in the state. These EVMs are more advanced than those used in Vidhan Sabha and lok Sabha elections. These have multi-post, multi-vote and multi-result facility. Polling for 8 posts can be held simultaneously through this EVM. It will also have NOTA option and Braille script facility. It will always show battery status.
Memory will remain safely stored in control unit and detachable memory module (DMM). DMM can be used once only. Separate DMMs will be used in different elections.
State-level master trainer Prof Sanjay Dixit informed that four polling units can be attached with on control unit. The machine will also tell time of beginning and ending of polling. Elections for Mayors-Chairpersons, corporators and members of Zila and Janpad Panchayats and sarpanchs will be held through EVMs and those of panchs through ballot papers.