The Election Commission of India (ECI) has completed the first stage of randomisation of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) for the upcoming Assembly elections in five states, including Assam, along with bye-elections in six other states. Officials said the process was carried out using the EVM Management System (EMS) and was done in the presence of representatives from recognised political parties. According to the Commission, the randomisation process is being followed in two stages to ensure fairness and transparency in the use of voting machines. In the first stage, EVMs are randomly allocated from district warehouses to different Assembly constituencies. This step has now been completed across all poll-bound states.
The states where Assembly elections are due include Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. Along with this, the exercise also covered bye-elections scheduled in six other states. Officials said that the process was conducted by District Election Officers (DEOs) as per the guidelines issued by the Election Commission. Around 8.85 lakh units of EVMs have been allocated in this phase. These include Ballot Units (BU), Control Units (CU) and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) devices.
The Commission stated that the presence of political party representatives during the randomisation process is important to build trust and ensure that all steps are carried out in a transparent manner. It also helps address concerns related to the handling and allocation of EVMs. The second stage of randomisation will be carried out closer to the date of polling. In that phase, the machines will be randomly assigned from Assembly constituencies to individual polling stations.