The election commission is all geared up for the upcoming state and center elections with the inclusion of new machines. Chief election commissioner, OP Rawat has said today that the upcoming assembly polls in Rajasthan will be held through Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) and EVM M-3 machines. Lately, a lot of skepticism has arisen in some political parties and among citizens regarding the authenticity of the EVMs. There were speculations that the electronic voting machines have tampered. Putting all doubts at bay, chief election commissioner said, ”The polling would be conducted in a fair and transparent manner with the new technology on all 200 assembly constituencies in Rajasthan so that there is no doubt in anyone’s mind against the election process”. He also said that the EC believes in the credibility of VVPAT and M-3 EVM being used for the assembly polls. The machines will be used at each polling booth across the state.
Speaking about the reliability of M-3 EVM, Rawat said that these EVMs are equipped with tamper detective mechanism and if someone tries to mess with it, it will go to factory mode and stop working.
Earlier this year, VVPAT was used for the bypoll to Dholpur assembly seat conducted in Rajasthan. These machines have a feedback system in which after a voter casts his vote a paper slip appears which mentions the name of the candidate and the party symbol which ensures that the vote was cast correctly. After 7 seconds the paper gets dropped to a drop box.
The chief election commissioner has also stated that the commission is working towards eliminating fake voters and including genuine ones in the electoral rolls. According to the updated list of voters till July 31, 2018, there were a total of 475.10 lakh voters, out of which 248.21 lakh are men and 226.89 lakh women. Approximately 349 voters from the third gender category are also likely to vote in the upcoming elections.
The election commission team was on a 2-day audit to look after the preparations of the upcoming assembly elections. CEC also mentioned that at least one booth in each constituency will be managed by women. Referring to the unauthorized activities on polling booths, he said that a ‘cVigil’ mobile app is built through which citizen can complain of any unlawful activity and that the matter will be resolved in 100 minutes. He also stated that the expenditure of candidates in elections will be kept in check by the appointed income tax officials.