Electronic Voting Machines- Field trial of Vote Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) system in five locations in the country

The Commission had a meeting of all political parties on 4^th October, 2010. The parties expressed satisfaction over the use of EVM and other issues, but several parties suggested that the Commission may consider introducing Voter Verifiable Paper Trail for further verifiability in the system. The Commission then referred the matter to the Technical Expert Committee on EVM for examining the matter and making recommendations. The Expert Committee had several rounds of meetings with BEL and ECIL on this issue and then had met the political parties and other civil society members who were engaged with the Commission on the issue of EVMs. On the direction of the Expert Committee, BEL and ECIL had prepared a prototype of VVPAT system and demonstrated it before the Committee and the Commission. The Expert Committee has now recommended that the prototype should be tested in field in extreme environmental conditions to get an effective assessment. The trial should be in real election like conditions.

Based on the recommendation of the Expert Committee, the Commission has decided to conduct field trial of the VVPAT system in a simulated election in the districts of the States as mentioned below: -

Sl.No.              Name of State                        Name of District

            1.                     Jammu & Kashmir                  Ladakh

            2.                     Kerala                                      Thiruvananthapuram

            3.                     Meghalaya                               Cherrapunjee

            4.                     NCT of Delhi                          East Delhi District

                 5.                     Rajasthan                                Jaisalmer

The Commission has decided to request the National and State Parties to extend necessary cooperation by getting involved in the trial process actively and also witness the trial to have a first hand experience of the system as per the calendar of events given below :-

Calendar of events :

 The details as to place, time etc. in respect of the above trials shall be announced separately.

The Commission has also decided to send its officials and the engineers of the manufacturers i.e. BEL and ECIL to these places for imparting training to the Polling Personnel/ Counting Officials/Voters and other related officials.