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EVMs make poll process neat and placid

Onkar Singh in Delhi

The Lok Sabha elections in Delhi will be different this time. There will be no ballot papers, no ballot boxes, no tussle over smudged ballot papers, no crowds inundating the polling and counting centres. But for the one month-gap between polling and counting whatever remains of election fever would long have dissipated.

Prakash Chand, the Chief Electoral Officer of Delhi, and the hundred odd men under him are working round the clock to ensure that everything passes off smoothly. The old St Stephens building which houses the office of the Chief Electoral Officer in Kashmiri Gate hardly resembles an election office. Gone are the times when there were people occupying virtually every nook and corner of his office.

"Thanks to the new electronic voting machines which would be used in all the seven parliamentary constituencies of Delhi, things are much better off for us now than it ever used to be in the past. We do not have to print hundreds of thousands of ballot papers and ensure their safety both before and after the polling dates. I and my officers and other staff members are working almost round the clock to meet the deadline. But working is fun because we are not hassled by the candidates or their supporters," Prakash Chand told rediff.com.

In all ninety seven candidates are in the fray for the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi. Outer Delhi parliamentary constituency has the largest number of contestants, twenty. "The main contest is between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress but other political parties like the Nationalist Congress Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party are also in the fray. So far we have not received a single complaint from any of the candidates about the breach of the poll code," Prakash Chand reveals.

According to him there will be more then 8700 polling stations in Delhi and all of them will be equipped with EVMs. "Each voting machine can take care of sixteen candidates but in case where there are more then sixteen candidates we would be using two electronic voting machines with a base control," he explained.

Under the new system, the time taken by each person for casting his vote would be considerably reduced. Also, the number of persons deployed for the polls will be drastically reduced.

Outer Delhi parliamentary constituency will have the largest number of EVMs -- 2990 --- while New Delhi parliamentary constituency will require no more then 580 EVMs. "Three hundred thousand voters have been added to the earlier voters list. Now over 8.7 million voters would be exercising their franchise in Delhi. We have been holding demonstration camps in various parts of the capital to educate the voters as to how to use the voting machines. In addition to that we have already printed over half a million pamphlets for distribution all over Delhi to the voters. We have given ten minute capsules to various television channels for educating their viewers. These appear almost regularly on one channel or the other," Chand said.

When asked how they would ensure the safety of the EVMs for more than a month he replied that the security arrangements would be foolproof. "The burden of security falls on the Delhi police. Of course we are there to supervise those arrangements. The candidates would be allowed to appoint one person each to keep an eye on the counting centres where the machines would be kept. We know that it is a long time. But since the Election Commission has decided we have to go by its directive," Chand added.

According to him, the counting in all the polling booths in Delhi should be over in less then four hours. "The time taken for counting the votes cast in each polling booth, including bringing the machine from the strong rooms and taken back there after the counting, would not take more then seven minutes at the maximum. By noon of October 6 the whole process of counting should be over, " he disclosed.

The Delhi government has bought the EVMs from the Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited and the company will be deploying its technicians in all the constituencies to ensure that the machines do not give trouble.

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