NEW DELHI: The Election Commission of India on Monday said that the poll machinery successfully completed the first randomisation of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trails (VVPATs) for Phase-I of the Bihar Legislative Assembly elections.
This critical electoral exercise comes as the preparations intensify for the first phase of polling scheduled on November 6, officials said.
The officials said that following the ECI’s strict guidelines, District Election Officers (DEOs) from all 18 districts participating in Phase-I conducted the randomisation process after completing the First Level Checking (FLC) of the EVMs and VVPATs. The randomisation was carried out using the EVM Management System (EMS) and witnessed by representatives of National and State Recognised Political Parties, highlighting the Commission’s commitment to transparency and impartiality, they added.
A total of 54,311 Ballot Units (BUs), 54,311 Control Units (CUs) and 58,123 VVPAT machines were randomly assigned across 121 Assembly Constituencies, which together comprise 45,336 polling stations for Phase-I, the officials said.
Detailed constituency-wise lists of the randomised voting machines were handed over to political party representatives at district headquarters to ensure full disclosure, they added.
The allocated EVMs and VVPATs have now been securely stored in Assembly Strong Rooms, guarded in the presence of party representatives to maintain the integrity and security of the election equipment.
The Bihar Assembly elections are being conducted in two phases, with Phase-I and Phase-II polling scheduled for November 6 and November 11, respectively.
Once the list of candidates for each constituency is finalised, the Commission will share the final randomised EVM and VVPAT allocations with all contesting candidates, further reinforcing transparency.
