Gandhinagar, Sep. 22 (IANS): Gujarat, which goes to the polls this year-end, will be among the two states where as many as 75,000 verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) gadgets will be used for the first time with the electronic voting machines, officials said Friday.
At least 60,000 VVPAT machines have already arrived while 15,000 more are likely to be delivered in the coming week.
Besides Gujarat, the machines would be used in the Himachal Pradesh assembly elections, likely to be held around the same time.
The VVPAT machines, which will be attached to the EVMs, will allow voters to verify if their vote has gone to the intended candidate.
A high-level team comprising the CEC, Election Commissioners Om Prakash Rawat and Sunil Arora, and other officials of the Election Commission, will pay a two-day visit to Gujarat in the first week of October to take a first-hand account of the State’s poll preparedness, law and order situation, finalization of electoral rolls and political stability.
The final electoral roll will be declared on September 25 while the dates for the elections will be announced after the by the EC team’s visit. The term of the 13th state assembly ends on January 22.
