New Delhi [India], April 16 : The Election Commission of India on Thursday commenced the commissioning of EVMs and VVPATs for constituencies of Tamil Nadu and the first phase in West Bengal on April 23.
The commissioning began in the presence of the candidates or their authorised representatives as well as General Observers, according to the release.
The Commission stated that the commissioning exercise will be followed by a mock poll of 1,000 votes in 5 per cent of the EVMs, which will be randomly selected by candidates or their representatives. Candidates will also be permitted to conduct mock polls themselves.
Before commissioning, EVMs were allocated to polling stations through a two-stage randomisation process using the EVM Management System (EMS). In the first stage, machines were randomly distributed from district-level warehouses to Assembly constituencies. In the second stage, they were further randomised and assigned to individual polling stations, the release stated.
As per official data, a total of 75,064 polling stations in Tamil Nadu and 44,378 polling stations in West Bengal (Phase-1) will go to the polls on April 23.
The first round of randomisation was conducted by District Election Officers in the presence of representatives of recognised national and state political parties. The second round was carried out by Returning Officers in the presence of contesting candidates, their agents and General Observers.
The Commission said constituency-wise lists of the first randomised EVMs and VVPATs were shared with representatives of all recognised political parties at district headquarters. Subsequently, the machines were stored in Assembly-level strong rooms under the supervision of political party representatives.
It added that the lists of both first and second randomised EVMs and VVPATs have been shared with all contesting candidates to ensure transparency in the electoral process.