Amid suspicion raised over election process of the recently held Assembly polls and Delhi MCD polls by some political parties, the Election Commission of India (ECI) is mulling to hold Gujarat Assembly polls using Voter Verification Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) enabled Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).
ECI has asked the State Election Commission (SCI) to check the possibility to use VVPAT system for the State Assembly polls, scheduled for late this year, said an SCI senior official, adding that if it is used then Gujarat will have the honour of being the first state to have Assembly elections through VVPAT enabled EVMs.
“At present SCI machinery is in the process of checking the feasibility to use the VVPAT system. As per an estimate minimum 75,000 control units and same number of VVPAT apart from equal number of EVMs would require for around 50,000 booths after having provision for the standby, training and demonstrations,” said the official.
According to him use of VVPAT would clear the doubts on election process as each booth would have a control unit which would record votes.
The control units would be linked with the EVMs for voters to use their franchise, he said while adding, “linking of VVPAT system with control units would generate a paper slip after the process of voting. The paper slip would directly go to a sealed container and during the time of counting if demanded by candidates, these slips would tell the truth.
Bahujan Samajvadi Party (BSP) top leader Mayavati and Aam Aadami Party supremo Arvind Kejriwal had expressed their concerned over the EVMs in the recently concluded Assembly polls of five States including Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Punjab and Goa after their parties’ miserable performances.
In fact ECI has already decided to hold 2019 lok Sabha polls using VVPAT system after the apex court’s order.
A corpus of Rs 3500 crore has not only been sanctioned by the Government of India for the purpose but the procurement process has also commenced.