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Sunday, Mar 29, 2009
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The machine count

M.L. MELLY MAITREYI
Hyderabad

Come April 16, the election juggernaut of the world’s biggest democracy will roll on with a whopping 15 lakh Electronic Voting Machines being pressed into service in more than eight lakh polling stations across the country, including remote and inaccessible areas.

The EVMs, which have simplified and revolutionised the voting process will be used throughout the country — barring Assam, Nagaland and Jammu and Kashmir — in 8,28,804 polling stations in this election (against 6,87,402 in the last election when 10 lakh machines were deployed).

The Hyderabad-based Electronics Corporation of India Ltd., which makes the EVMs in collaboration with Bharat Electronics Ltd., (BEL), has just wrapped up delivery of the last consignment of voting machines for the 2009 elections.

Training for personnel

Training programmes have begun for polling personnel on the use of EVMs, and technical teams are examining and certifying each and every machine.

Despite some scepticism in countries such as the U.S. about the reliability of the machines, ECIL chairman and managing director (CMD) K.S. Rajasekhara Rao said that after 2004 elections, India had become a role model and its standalone EVM had won global recognition for its ability to collect, record, store, count and display voting data in quick time with no scope for discrepancy.

He claimed this was vindicated by the orders for EVMs from countries such as Bhutan and Nepal, which had used them successfully in recent elections. Other countries including Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have sought samples for evaluation, he said.

The machines were introduced after a series of field trials with suitable modifications in the last general elections. They had earlier been used in a limited fashion in some Assembly elections.

The 2009 EVMs have new features such as ‘time stamping’ which will enable the machine to display the time of polling as also the total votes polled each hour, making the process more transparent.

Upgraded features

In the current round of elections, EVMs with upgraded features will be deployed in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Arunachal Pradesh, he said.

Apart from speeding up the voting and counting processes, the new EVMs eliminate the scope for invalid votes, which sometimes might mar the winning chances of a candidate.

Each unit is programmed to prevent rigging of votes and in case of such an eventuality, the presiding officer could simply press ‘close’ button thus preventing recording of votes, explained D.A. Rao, Head, Electronic Manufacturing Services Division, ECIL.

Asked what would happen if there are more than 64 nominees in the fray in a given constituency as the EVM has provision only for a maximum of 64, he said: “Should that happen, it may be back to the ballot paper as an exception.”

He pointed out that the EVMs were cost-effective, eco-friendly (as they save on paper by eliminating the need for ballot papers) and substantially reduce the counting staff.

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