October 25, 2017: Gujarat Assembly Elections will be held in two phases. The Election Commission today announced the Polls in Gujarat will be held on December 9 and December 14. Counting of votes will take place on December 18. Number voters stands at 4.33 crore and 99.99 per cent electorate have EPIC.
The poll in the State will be conducted at all polling stations using EVMs and VVPATs. The Commission has already made arrangements to ensure availability of adequate number of EVMs and VVPATs for the smooth conduct of election. The First Level Check of EVMs and VVPATs has been completed in 32 out of 33 districts in the presence of representatives of political parties. A two-stage randomization of EVMs and VVPATs will also be done. In the first stage, all the EVMs and VVPATs stored in the district storage centre will be randomized by the District Election Officer (DEO) in the presence of the representatives of the recognized political parties for Assembly Constituency-wise allocation. Second randomization of EVMs and VVPATs will be done at RO level before preparation of EVMs and VVPATs for polling station-wise allocation. This is done in the presence of Observer contesting candidates/their agents.
EVMs and VVPATs will be prepared and set for election after finalization of the contesting candidates, At this stage also, candidates or their agents/representatives will be allowed to check and satisfy themselves in every manner about the error-free functionality of the EVMs and VVPATs. On a pilot basis, VVPAT from One (1) Polling Station in each Assembly Constituency will be randomly selected to count VVPAT paper slips for verification of the result obtained from the Control Unit. Thus paper slip for 182 polling stations will be counted in Gujarat. A comprehensive SVEEP programme has already been launched in Gujarat to increase voters’ awareness and education about the VVPATs. (PIB)
