Political parties in Gujarat to get boothwise list of EVMs

"First time, in this election a boothwise list of EVMs will be prepared and it will be given to candidates. With this technology it will be possible to pre-decide EVM machine number for every booth," Ahmedabad district election officer Vijay Nehra said.

Each machine can be tracked by its distinctive number bringing in more transparency in the process, he said when allegations of EVM rigging are levelled by candidates of various political parties.

The EVM tracking software was introduced by Election Commission two years back, and with the help of computer randomisation process, EVM allocation shall take place this time, Nehra said.

Not only we took physical possession of EVMs from Uttar Pradesh after polls, but the district administration there had to electronically transfer the machines, Nehra said.

The centralised database of EVMs' with EC empowers it to track deployment of the machine during polling.

Ahmedabad district has 21 assembly constituencies, with 4,856 polling booths and around 17,821 EVMs (9,934 ballet units and 7,887 control units) engaged for casting votes.

Of the total, nearly 20 per cent of machines are kept in reserve for replacements and another seven percent are earmarked for poll related demonstrations, Nehra said.

The process of randomisation began today here in the presence of political parties, he said, adding it shall be a three stage process -- zero, first and second randomisation.

Once the name of candidates are finalised the second and final randomisation shall take place, Nehra said.

Assembly polls in Gujarat are scheduled for December 13 and 17 and counting of votes will take place on December 20.