In a move to ensure greater transparency during the polls, the Election Commission (EC) has decided to procure Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPATs) machines for all polling booths for the Lok Sabha elections in 2019.
For a smooth electoral process, the EC has begun preparation 13 months in advance. About 50 per cent of the groundwork has been completed as the EC has begun work ahead of schedule.
As many as 9.45 lakh units have been produced by the Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), Bangalore, and Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL), Hyderabad, till date. The remaining VVPAT units (8 lakh) will be manufactured and supplied to the various States/UTs comfortably before end of November 2018. The Commission had placed an order of 17.45 lakh VVPAT units to these two Public Sector Units. The EC said the poll panel would like to allay any “unfounded apprehensions” regarding the supply of VVPATs for the Lok Sabha polls in 2019.
Even as 17 political parties want the Lok Sabha polls to be conducted on paper ballots and wish to discuss the issue, the EC has made improvements in VVPAT machine design to rule out any malfunctioning.
According to sources, the EC is taking extra care this time to avoid any glitches in the EVM machines and the update comes after the embarrassing situation in Gondia and Kairana bypolls where many VVPAT design faltered on over exposure to heat and light. In other cases, the paper roll had absorbed humidity and failed to move smoothly in the VVPAT system.
The EC also stated that the Commission has enhanced the requirement of additional VVPAT machines from 125 per cent to 135 per cent considering the trend of failure rate in past elections.
The Commission has estimated 171 per cent Ballot Units, 125 per cent Control Units and 135 VVPAT units’ requirements for upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
“In case of any error in VVPAT units, only VVPAT is replaced with the reserve one, whereas, in case of any error in Ballot Unit or Control Unit of the EVM, entire set of Ballot Unit(s), Control Unit and VVPAT is changed, resulting in an increase in requirement of VVPAT units than the requirement of Control Units of EVMs,” it said.
Sources in the EC said special care will be taken of VVPAT machines — anti-humidity thermal paper rolls have been procured, which will be used in high-humidity polling stations. “These highly absorbent thermal paper rolls will ensure uninterrupted voting in humid areas. The heat-and-light problems will be addressed by way of special hoods that the new VVPATs will come with,” said the sources.
“The comprehensive and systematic preparatory activities for the Lok Sabha elections, including the detailed First Level Checking of EVMs and VVPAT units, have already commenced across various States/UTs and will be completed in an efficient, effective and timely manner. First Level Checks workshops and trainings of polling officials are being regularly conducted by the Commission to minimise EVM/VVPAT failures due to human errors,” the EC said.
For the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the polling staff will undergo training on how to handle the new EVM and the VVPAT machines correctly and as per protocol, so that malfunctions due to human error are minimised.
The EC had earlier submitted an affidavit to the Supreme Court, committing that they will introduce VVPAT machines at all polling stations for the Lok Sabha elections, currently scheduled for May 2019. In the VVPAT system, when a voter presses a button for a candidate of his choice in the EVM, a paper ballot containing the serial number, name of the candidate and poll symbol will be printed and the voter can verify it.
