Gujarat Assembly polls are likely to be held in December, said Chief Election Commissioner A.K. Joti in Ahmedabad after holding detailed meetings with representatives of the political parties, officials of the State government and the police officials during the two day visit of the Election Commission.
“The polls will mostly be held in December as the new Assembly has to be in place in January,” Mr. Joti told the media in Ahmedabad. He added that the schedule for the Assembly polls will be announced shortly. Mr. Joti also did not specify whether the polls will be in two phases or one phase.
However, the ruling BJP has submitted that the Assembly polls should be held in January 2018 because the term of the present Assembly end on January 22 that year.
“We had a series of meetings with all stakeholders like the representatives of the political parties, officials of the State administration, police and others on the preparations for the Assembly polls,” he said, adding “the commission will study the suggestions made by the political parties” for conducting the free and fair elections in the State.
He reiterated that the elections will be conducted with VVPAT attached EVMs for all 182 Assembly segments in the State.
Earlier, Gujarat’s Chief Electoral Officer had announced that Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines will be used with the EVMs in all 50,128 voting booths in Gujarat during the Assembly polls. “This is for the first time, entire assembly poll will be conducted using the EVMS equipped with VVPAT,” Chief Electoral Officer B.B. Swain had told the media.
The VVPAT machines will allow voters to verify if their vote has gone to the intended candidate. According to him, the EVMs equipped with VVPAT will lead to transparency in the voting process.
On October 10, Mr. Joti said that all political parties have welcomed the introduction of VVPAT-equipped EVMs for the Assembly polls. Mr. Joti said that the EC will be taking a series of steps in next few days in the run up to the announcement of the schedule for the polls.
