NEW DELHI: Election Commission on Wednesday rejected the opposition parties’ demand for taking up paper slip count for VVPATs before commencement of EVM rounds, saying that it was neither possible nor feasible to accede to the demand “in the overall context” and in view of the recent Supreme Court direction that slip verification be done as per EVM manual. The manual stipulates that VVPAT count should follow only after completion of last round of votes recorded in EVMs.

“The Commission deliberated on the issue with senior officials dealing with this issue in ECI. After two rounds of in-depth discussions yesterday and today, it has neither been found possible nor feasible to accede to this demand,” EC said in a release hours before start of counting.

Sources told TOI EC was also of the view that any eleventh-hour change in counting sequence and procedures, which were shared with district-level election officers months in advance and based on which thousands of counting staff were trained, would only add to confusion and delays.

While 538 parliamentary constituencies have 4120 assembly segments, 5 have no such segments. Given that 5 VVPATs for each assembly segment are to be counted, for the Lok Sabha alone, paper trail count for more than 20,000 VVPATs would be taken. It takes 45-90 minutes to count slips for one VVPAT. As one VVPAT is counted at a time and counting for different assembly segments goes on simultaneously, the result may be delayed by an estimated 5-6 hours, said an official.

Results may be delayed further due to the requirement of mandatory QR code reading of each postal ballots and in the event of requests for VVPAT count sought by candidates and VVPAT count to be taken up in other scenarios.

EC on Wednesday sought to allay fears expressed by opposition leaders about the safety/security of EVMs and strongrooms. “The Commission....assures them and all the electors of the country that the entire counting, especially guarding the strong rooms and counting centres is already being done in an absolutely fair and transparent manner,” it said.

EC, meanwhile, has on its own made some changes in counting norms to cut delays. For instance, it has withdrawn its November 2003 instructions for not taking up a penultimate round of EVM counting unless all postal ballots are counted. It has also done away with recounting of all postal ballots on the ground that their number is less than the victory margin, and will only go for reverification of rejected postal ballots, with videography.

Counting of postal ballots will start first at 8 am on Thursday. EVM counting rounds follow half-an-hour later. During EVM counting, if the display of the control unit fails or CU does not switch on, the corresponding VVPAT will be set aside for counting. Also, where the presiding officer failed to delete mock poll data from EVM before the actual poll and where total votes polled in CU exceed the record of votes in Form 17-C, the CU and corresponding VVPAT will be set aside. Once EVM rounds are over, counting for VVPATs in both scenarios will be taken up.

After that counting for VVPATs as requested by any candidate under Rule 56D and granted by the returning officer, will be done. The paper slips for mandatory 5 VVPATs per assembly segment of a parliamentary constituency will be taken up last.

In the event of a mismatch between EVM and VVPAT count, a recount will be taken. If the discrepancy persists, VVPAT count will prevail.



In Video: EC rejects opposition parties' demand regarding VVPAT slips