New Delhi, April 16 The ECI on Thursday began the commissioning of EVMs and VVPATs for Assembly constituencies, including those in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, going to polls on April 23, an official said.
Voting will take place on 234 Assembly seats in Tamil Nadu and 152 Assembly constituencies in West Bengal next week, along with bye-elections in Gujarat and Maharashtra.
The commission of EVM-VVPATs for the Phase one elections in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal started in the presence of candidates or their authorised representatives, as well as General Observers, said an official.
Commissioning will be followed by a mock poll of 1,000 votes in 5 per cent of the EVMs randomly selected by the candidates/ their representatives. “They will also be allowed to do the mock polls themselves,” said the statement.
Before commissioning, the EVMs were allotted to their respective polling stations through a two-stage randomisation process through the EVM management System, it said.
In the first stage, EVMs were randomly allocated from the District level warehouses to the Assembly Constituencies. In the second stage, EVMs were randomly allocated from the AC level to the polling station level.
“The total number of polling stations is 75,064 in Tamil Nadu and 44,378 in West Bengal (Phase-I), which are going to polls on April 23,” said the official statement.
As per the directions of the Election Commission of India (ECI), the First Randomisation was done through the EVM Management System (EMS) by the DEOs in the presence of the representatives of National and State recognised political parties.
Second randomisation of EVMs was completed through EVM Management System (EMS) by the Returning Officers in the presence of contesting candidates/their agents and General Observers for the General Election to Legislative Assemblies of Tamil Nadu and West Bengal (Phase-I) and bye-elections in Gujarat and Maharashtra on April 23, said the statement.
The ECI said the constituency-wise lists of first randomised EVMs and VVPATs were shared with the representatives of all National and State recognised political Parties at the respective district headquarters.
These EVMs and VVPATs were thereafter stored in respective Assembly Strong Rooms in the presence of the representatives of National and State recognised political parties. The list of first and second randomised EVMs and VVPATs has also been shared with all the contesting candidates, the ECI said.
--IANS
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