Control units with snags not to be counted

Under the new rules of the Election Commission of India, the control units (CUs) of electronic voting machines (EVMs) will not be repaired when they malfunction during the counting of votes on May 2.

“If any CU develops a snag, no effort will be taken to repair it but such units will be kept under the custody of the returning officer and the counting of votes in other CUs will continue without stoppage,” Virudhunagar District Election Officer R. Kannan said.

In the earlier elections, such units were taken up for repair to enable counting. But under the new rules, if the votes polled in such units are less than the margin of votes between the first and second candidates at the end of the completion of counting in all other CUs, those units will not be taken up for counting, he said.

“For example, if 800 votes are polled in a particular CU (as per the 17C record) that has developed a technical fault and the margin of votes between the first and second candidates is over 800, that CU need not be taken for counting as it will not change the outcome. Instead, the votes [here 800] will be deleted from the total number of votes counted in that particular constituency,” Mr. Kannan said.

In the earlier elections, if the display section in the CU failed to display the results, officials would attach auxiliary display units to retrieve the results. Otherwise printers too were used to get the results, Returning Officer for Sivakasi C. Dinesh Kumar said.

In case the margin between the first and second candidates is less than the number of votes polled in the malfunctioned CU, instead of repairing it, the printed paper slips of the respective voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) units will be counted, Mr. Kannan added.

- THE HINDU