EC to meet parties over paper trail of votes

Voters may soon be able to trail their ballot and confirm whether their vote on the Electronic Voting Machine has gone in favour of the candidate they chose.

The trail will involve issuance of a printed slip for voter confirmation and will become a reality once the newly proposed Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) system is introduced by the Election Commission. The system comes in the wake of apprehensions expressed by political parties especially the BJP in respect of the fairness of EVMs.

The EC, which told the Supreme Court last week that it had recently approved the VVPAT design and sought its further fine- tuning to ensure zero error, has invited the representatives of various political parties on May 10 to discuss the new system. Top sources in the EC said the new system might not be implemented in the next general elections across the country, as around 1.3 mn such new devices were required.