ECI holds workshop for first-level checking of EVMs & VVPATs

MP | 22 July 2023 | Kolkata: The Election Commission of India (ECI) held a workshop at a city hotel for the first level checking of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and aVoter-Verified Paper Audit Trails (VVPATs) as a preparation for the Lok Sabha election scheduled to take place next year. 

The District Magistrates (DMs) from all the districts and trainers from the Election Commission of India (ECI) joined the workshop on Saturday. Training on first-level checking will be conducted in the state from August 1-10. 

Around 5 per cent of EVMs will be examined in the first level of checking. Around 1 per cent of the EMVs are checked by exercising 1,200 demo votes. It is also examined whether VVPATs are working in tandem with the EVMs. 

Around 2 per cent of EMVs are tested with around 1,000 demo votes being exercised. Representatives of various political parties will also be invited during the first level of checking. 

A senior EMV expert BC Patra came down to the city from Delhi and joined Saturday’s workshop. The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Aariz Aftab was also present in the workshop. Besides the workshop, the DMs were also asked to give emphasis on voter list correction. There are names of many people on the voter list who have died. 

Names of married women often feature twice both from their in-law’s house and parental house. A 3-member team of the Election Commission of India under the leadership of senior deputy election commissioner Nitesh Vyas will visit the city on August 19 to take stock of the law and order situation. 

The full bench of ECI is likely to come to the state at the end of August to take stock of the preparation ahead of the Lok Sabha elections next year. Voter list verification works started a few days ago. 

The CEO may conduct a review meeting to review the preparedness ahead of the visit of the ECI full bench. Earlier this year, the CEO office in the state published the final photo electoral roll of Bengal. 

The number of total electors on the final publication stands at 7,52,08,377. The number has increased from what remained at 7,42,88,233 on the draft publication. 

https://www.millenniumpost.in/bengal/eci-holds-workshop-for-first-level-checking-of-evms-vvpats-526572