Kolkata, Nov 21 The Election Commission of India (ECI), on Friday, has decided to invite representatives of different political parties registered with the commission to be present during the sessions for checking the electronic voting machines (EVMs) and voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) units that would be used for the forthcoming Assembly elections in West Bengal next year, officials said.
The checking of the EVMs and the VVPATs will start from January.
The decision to invite the representatives of the registered political parties at the time of checking the EVMs and the VVPATs is aimed at bringing transparency in the system.
In the past, there had been allegations by opposition parties of EVM malfunctioning on the polling day.
The opposition parties have alleged that in certain cases, although the EVM button was pressed in favour of one candidate, the vote was cast in favour of another candidate.
However, the commission had every time debunked the allegations and have scientific evidence to prove why such allegations were totally baseless.
The requirement for EVMs and VVPATs in the 2026 Assembly polls will be significantly higher than in previous elections, owing to a nearly 17 per cent increase in polling booths compared to the 2024 Lok Sabha and 2021 state Assembly polls.
"Typically, the total requirement of EVM and VVPAT machines is calculated on the number of booths plus 30 per cent reserve. Going by that calculation, the total requirement of EVM machines will be around 1.30 lakh and an equal number of VVPAT machines," an official said.
Explaining the reason behind the increase in the number of booths, the official added that, as per the directive of the ECI, this time the total number of voters in a single booth should not exceed 1,200, and hence, to accommodate that, the number of booths had to be increased.
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