NEW DELHI: The Election Commission (EC) will have a complete stock of about 26 lakh Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) by September this year for the big political battle scheduled in 2019.
Even as the debate over the simultaneous polls is still going on, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) O P Rawat told The Sunday Standard that the commission is prepared for the polls provided that the legal and logistical issues are resolved.
“There are legal issues. EC was asked in 2015 about its views on simultaneous polls. It said we had simultaneous polls till 1967. After that some Assemblies started going out of sync,” Rawat said.
The CEC said that the commission has got the money for adequate number of EVMs and VVPAT machines and the orders have been placed. “The production is going on in full swing. We will get adequate number of these machines by September this year,” he added.
While total 26 lakh EVM machines are needed, the EC has only 10 lakh. Another 16 lakh EVMs will be delivered by Deprember 2018. Similarly, the EC has 15 lakh Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines, and will get another 15 lakh by September. Rawat said number of paramilitary forces is also a big constraint in holding simultaneous polls.