The Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) on Friday submitted the recommendations of an expert committee on the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slip verification to the Election Commission.
The report titled “Random Sampling For Testing of EVMs via VVPAT Slip Verification” was handed over to Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora and Election Commissioners Ashok Lavasa and Sushil Chandra. The Commission will examine the report to determine the course of action.
In view of demands from various political parties to increase the percentage of the VVPAT slip counted during elections, the Commission had engaged the ISI to analyse and scientifically examine the issue of matching the slips with the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) results.
The expert committee which carried out the exercise included Prof. Abhay G. Bhatt, Head ISI (Delhi Centre); Prof. Rajeeva L. Karandikar, Director of the Chennai Mathematical Institute; and Onkar Prosad Ghosh, Deputy Director-General (Social Statistics Division) of the Central Statistics Office, MOSPI, who was nominated by the National Sample Survey Office Director-General.
“Before finalising its report, the expert committee had wide-ranging consultations with other experts in the field of statistics and examined suggestions received from other groups,” said the EC in a statement.
The report comes ahead of the March 25 hearing in the Supreme Court on a joint petition filed by 23 Opposition parties demanding the random verification of at least 50% EVM results through VVPAT slips in every Assembly segment or constituency. In the last hearing, the court had issued a notice to the Election Commission seeking its response to the petition.
VVPAT slips are currently matched with EVM results at one randomly selected polling booth in each Assembly constituency.
