SHILLONG: The Election Commission has ruled out use of paper ballots in the next elections despite growing demand in this regard from various political parties.
Chief Electoral Officer Frederick Kharkongor said all parameters have been fulfilled by the ECI regarding EVMs.
He said the EC will throw an open challenge to political parties to come and hack EVMs during the next meeting with them.
However, he said EC will introduce Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) attached to the EVMs as this will be of help to the voters to verify whom they had voted. The VVPAT machines, which will be set up along with the EVMs in polling booths, will print the name of the candidate voted which will satisfy the voter. The machines will be introduced in some polling stations in the 2018 Assembly elections in Meghalaya, Kharkongor said.
Earlier, Sohra was chosen twice to test VVPAT in 2011 and 2012 and mock polls were also held to carry out the exercise successfully.
Kharkongor said Sohra was chosen since EC wanted to test the VVPAT in extreme weather conditions.
According to the chief electoral officer, voters cannot take back the VVPAT slips as this will lead to breach of sanctity and secrecy of franchise.
Moreover, it will also involve security of the voters since they can be targeted once it is known which candidates they had voted for.
The official said there are two models of VVPAT, the open model (which can be taken home after casting votes) and the close model. The latter will be used in both Assembly and Lok Sabha polls in 2019.
