The Hindu : Kerala News : EVMs to be used in civic polls

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 06, 2005

Kerala

Kerala

EVMs to be used in civic polls

Special Correspondent

5,000 EVMs for five corporations and 53 municipalities

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The State Election Commission (SEC) has decided to use electronic voting machines (EVMs) in the elections to corporations and municipalities.

The SEC, N. Mohandas, said here on Thursday that the Election Commission had agreed to make available 5,000 EVMs for use in the five corporations and 53 municipalities.

Government nod

He added that the State Government had given clearance for acquiring 2,000 EVMs which were to be kept as reserve as suggested by the commission. They were being bought from the public sector ECIL.

As only one vote could be cast through the EVMs, ballot papers would be used in three-tier panchayats. In panchayats, voters would have to cast three votes. Even though some agencies came forward to develop EVMs that were capable of casting more votes, it was decided to use ballot papers taking into consideration the technical problems and the financial commitment required for acquiring 40,000 machines.

While preparing the draft voters list for the general elections to the local bodies, the additional details published by the Election Commission with January 1, 2005, as the cut-off date would be used as the additional list.

The Election Commission had allowed the use of its database without photographs. The SEC would compare its voters list with the published list of the Election Commission and include the voters who could be identified on the basis of house numbers and other details provided in the additional list.

This was to avoid inconvenience for those who had voted in the last Parliament elections but have to include name in the voters list for the local body poll all over again.

The SEC would try to make the voters list as foolproof as possible. Directions would be given to the Electoral Registration Officers (ERO) to include all eligible persons and weed out the ineligible ones.

The names of dead persons and those who had shifted to other places would be removed from the list.

The grama panchayat secretaries had been made EROs in the place of block panchayat secretaries in order to make the inclusion of names in the voters list easier. The new voters should approach them to get their names included.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Kerala

News Update

Stories in this Section