The Election Commission will soon convene an all-party meeting to discuss among other things, the use of money power during polls, paid news and the functioning of electronic voting machines (EVMs).
Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi, who announced this here on Monday while briefing journalists on the Bihar Assembly poll dates, made it clear that EVMs were functioning “satisfactorily.”
Paper trail demand
On the demands of some Opposition parties that the EVMs could have a “paper trail” to further make it fool-proof, he said for this a change in the basic design of the machine was required. Anyway the subject would be on the agenda of the political parties during the all-party meeting, he said.
A set of guidelines will be followed to eradicate the menace of paid news and this will be enforced during the Bihar polls.
Mr. Quraishi said the commission had issued a new set of instructions regarding the first level check of EVMs in Bihar. A two-stage randomisation of EVMs will be made. In the first, all the EVMs stored in the district storage centre will be randomised by the District Election Officer in the presence of the representatives of the recognised political parties for constituency-wise allocation.
After the EVMs in a constituency are prepared for polling by the Returning Officer and the ballot units are fitted with papers, the EVMs will again be randomised to decide the actual polling stations in which they will be ultimately used. The second stage randomisation will be done in the presence of observers and candidates or their election agents.
To a question, the Commission's legal counsel S.K. Mendiratta said as per the new legislation enacted recently, the publication/telecasting/broadcasting of opinion and exit polls would be banned from closure of campaign hours for the first phase of Bihar poll (ie. 3 p.m. from October 19) to closure of polling hours in the last phase (November 20).
Maoist threat
About the Maoist threats during the poll, Mr. Quraishi said the Commission had taken into consideration the ground reality and would deploy adequate forces to ensure a free and fair poll.
