EC used VVPAT in the poll of this state five years ago

Kohima: The first official use of the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) with Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) in the country was in Noksen Assembly Constituency under Tuensang district of Nagaland during 2013 Assembly Elections and the result was satisfactory. The Chief Electoral Officer Nagaland Abhijit Sinha, in a statement said on awareness of VVPAT, the Election Commission of India decided to use it in all state legislative assembly elections throughout the country.

The CEO of Nagaland has announced that Nagaland will be using Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) with Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) 2194 polling stations in all future state legislative Assembly elections. The plan is to reach out to people at the village level, various political parties and Government officials, informed Abhijit Sinha.

Use of VVPAT would be translated into local dialects, English, Nagamese and that hoardings would be put in public places for mass awareness. He said VVPAT is an independent system attached EVM that allows the voters to verify that their votes are cast as intended. Sinha informed that VVPAT is attached to the ballot unit of the EVM and both the ballot unit and the VVPAT are placed in the voting compartment. When a voter presses the blue button on the ballot unit to vote for the candidate of his or her choice, the glass window on the VVPAT lights up and printed paper slip containing serial number, name of the candidate and election symbol of the candidate is visible to the voter and all the details on the paper slip.

He further explained that after 7 seconds, the printed paper slips in VVPAT get automatically cut and falls into the sealed printed paper slip compartment or drop box of VVPAT followed by a beep sound, the statement said. Meanwhile, the Election Commissioner of India has announced single-phase the Nagaland Assembly elections on February 27 next. (UNI)