Gujarat to be first big state to use VVPAT system on 50,128 polling centers in assembly polls: CEO

Gandhinagar: Gujarat will be the first big state where in the forthcoming Gujarat Legislative Assembly election will be held with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machine on as many as 50,128 centers.

Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) and Principal Secretary Mr. B. B. Sawain, in Gandhinagar today briefing and demonstrating the media persons about the electronic voting machine (EVM) and the VVPAT, said that with the VVPAT machines the voters would experience the transparency and would enjoy a new right.

Mr. Swain further stated that the VVPAT system was introduced as a pilot project in the elections held in Gujarat in year-2012. The VVPAT system will be used for voting for the first time in all centers of the forthcoming assembly elections. For this, as many as 70,182 VVPAT machines are coming to Gujarat from the five different states as well as two Indian companies – BEL and ECIL. The VVPAT system is taking 7-seconds to register each vote. Thus, a representation has been made before the Election Commission of India to extend the timings of voting.

According to the latest electoral list, it has as many as 433,00,000 registered voters. In comparison to year-2012 it has increased by 52,00,000 voters. The numbers of polling centers have been increased by 4,500 as the numbers of voters have gone up. For making voting easy, the maximum number of voters limit has been setup, 1200 and 1400 voters per machines in rural and urban areas, respectively. A proper survey has been conducted to ensure that the distance of the polling center should not be more than 2-kilometers and not requiring to cross river and/or canals, Mr. Swain said.

The CEO said that after casting his/her vote, the voters would be able to verify that his/her vote has gone to whom? The system would generate a print-out of the votes that have been registered in the VVPAT. It would stay within the machine. The counting of the votes would be made only with the ballot control unit. In case of any discrepancy or doubt created during the counting of the votes than the printed slip of the VVPAT machine would be considered as the final.

The efforts are being made to aware all the political parties, media and voters about the details and direction of the VVPAT. For this purpose a ‘Jagruti Van’ (Awareness Van) would be prepared with a mock polling center. And efforts would be made that this van reaches out to the maximum number of people. The Gujarat has over 10-lakh new young registered voters, who will be exercising their voting right for the first time. The efforts would be made that these youths get the knowledge of the VVPAT.

Others, who were present on the occasion, included additional chief electoral officer Mr. Ashok Manek, Mr. Lalit Pandya, joint chief electoral officer Mr. Jaydeep Trivedi and others.

– Information