Guwahati, March 30: The commissioning of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) for the upcoming Assam Assembly elections will begin Tuesday across all 126 constituencies, according to the Chief Electoral Officer’s office.
The process will be conducted at premises notified by District Election Officers (DEOs), with engineers and technical staff from Electronics Corporation of India Ltd (ECIL) overseeing the exercise. Contesting candidates and their representatives will be present to ensure transparency.
A total of 41,353 Ballot Units (BUs), 45,572 Control Units (CUs), and 44,830 Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) units will undergo commissioning, including reserves of 9,863 BUs, 14,082 CUs, and 13,340 VVPATs.
Key features of the process include:
• Symbol loading: Each VVPAT will be loaded with party symbols using a Symbol Loading Unit (SLU), with simultaneous display on monitors for verification.
• Mock polls: Candidates or their representatives can randomly select up to 5% of EVMs and VVPATs for trial runs to build confidence in the system.
• Transparency measures: Passengers booked under the same PNR will be seated together as far as possible, and all optional service charges must be clearly displayed.
There will be 31,490 polling stations across Assam for 2.51 crore electors to cast their votes.
Polling for the 126-member Assembly is scheduled for April 9, with results to be declared on May 4. This will be the first Assembly election in Assam after the 2023 delimitation exercise.
