NEWS
ANALYSIS
SPECIALS
INTERVIEW
CAMPAIGN TRAIL
CONSTITUENCY
ISSUES
GALLERY
MANIFESTOS
INDIA SPEAKS!
COUNTDOWN
CHAT
PREVIOUS RESULTS
SCHEDULE
DISCUSSION GROUP

EVMs are a big hit, despite a few snags

No ballot papers, ballot boxes or stamps and the entire process is over within seconds. The 'user-friendly' Electronic Voting Machines have won the approval of both voters and the poll personnel. The electorate as well as poll officials in all the seven constituencies of the capital which went to polls today, expressed satisfaction over the utility of the EVMs which has simplified the entire business of balloting.

Some of the assembly segments were exposed to EVMs during last year's elections on a trial basis in the city. The Election Commission had given elaborate publicity to the EVMs to orient people to its use. Posters were put up at the entry point of every booth with graphic details and when needed poll officials were there to assist them.

Visually handicapped Radhey Shyam (65), who was escorted by his wife Kamala to a booth at Madangir in Outer Delhi parliamentary constituency, said, ''It is very easy and not cumbersome at all as was the case with ballot papers.'' Walking alongside him, another voter, 80-year-old Chand Rani also welcomed the innovation introduced in the polling process.

It was curiosity over EVMs which brought 90-year-old Abdul Awaz to a polling station in Chandni Chowk after a gap of two elections. ''Despite being unwell, I chose to come to experience the new system of voting.''

''The EVMs have made our task much easier. We do not have to fold ballot papers which used to be a time-taking exercise and push it inside the boxes,'' said a presiding officer at a polling station in Green Park in South Delhi.

The use of EVMs also virtually dispensed with queues which used to be a common sight at polling booths earlier. ''We are saved from the confusion caused by the queues,'' said another in a New Delhi polling centre. The long 'beep' sound produced at the press of a button at the EVM seemed to have given a sense of satisfaction to the voter as it indicated registration of the vote.

The EVMs eliminate chances of invalid voting. Though the machines worked smoothly at most of the places, non-availability of a back-up system kept poll officials on tenterhooks. Several complaints were received at the Election Commission regarding temporary failure of these machines at some centres. At a booth in Prasad Nagar area of Karol Bagh constituency, polling was delayed by one-and-a-half hours due to some snag in the EVM. It was only after specialists came and rectified the fault that the polling could start at 0830 hours. The lapse of one-and-a-half hours made the polling agents of the BJP and the Congress restive as the loss of time due to this could not be compensated by granting extra time as per the Election Commission guidelines.

Polling agents of the two main parties in A Chandni Chowk polling centre also complained of loss of an hour of voting time due to malfunctioning of EVM. Delhi chief electoral officer Prakash Chander had said on the eve of the polling that 'reserve' EVMs would be kept to meet any contingency and ten teams of engineers of Bharat Electricals Ltd had been requisitioned to attend to complaints.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report