fThe State election authority, the Chief Electoral Officer, has decided to set up a State Demonstration Centre on the premises of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation’s office to educate voters about the use of electronic voting machines and voter verifiable paper audit trail machines.
The decision was taken in the light of doubts expressed by political parties and a section of voters over the efficacy of VVPATs being deployed for the first time in the State. It was initially contemplated to set up the demonstration centre at the CEO’s office, but the proposal was put off in view of the restrictions on people’s entry into the State Secretariat where the CEO’s office is located.
The State received 18,630 VVPATs against the 44,000 allotted by the Election Commission of India till Thursday evening and the supply continued on Friday too. The first level checking (FLC) of these machines was taken up in more than a dozen districts till Friday in the presence of representatives of major political parties.
The election authority proposes to conduct mock polling using at least one per cent of the machines once the FLC of all the machines is completed. Senior officials said in the light of apprehensions over the scope of all votes getting transferred to a particular party, irrespective of the choice of the electors, it was decided to conduct mock polling to clear all the doubts.
In addition to setting up a demonstration centre in the State capital, it was decided to deploy 10 mobile units equipped with all machines and trained officials to educate voters at the grassroot level. These mobile units would cover all the 12,000 wards in different gram panchayats and municipal areas much ahead of the elections.
The officials said the State has received a total of 39,970 ballot units against the 52,100 allotted and 30,840 control units as against the 40,700 earmarked till Thursday night, even as the transfer of the machines from Bharat Electronics Limited facilities at Bengaluru and Panchkula in Haryana continued on Friday. The BEL’s Benagaluru facility has been directed to supply the equipment for 26 of the 31 districts, while the Panchkula unit would supply the equipment for the remaining districts.
