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ECI Says Poll Panel Logistically Equipped For Simultaneous General And Assembly Elections By 2018

Swarajya Staff

Oct 05, 2017, 01:33 PM | Updated 01:33 PM IST

ECI Officials checking EVMs before deploying them (Vikas Khot./Hindustan Times via Getty Images)

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has notified the government that it is ‘logically equipped’ to conduct simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies by September 2018. This comes a few days after it issued a direction that Voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) will be used at polling stations in all future elections where polls are held using Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs ). The ECI today (5 October) launched a web-based application – Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) network – aimed at efficient conduct of elections.

The Election Commission was asked by the Centre as what it would require for becoming capable of holding the parliamentary and Assembly polls together. In response, the EC had asked for funds to purchase new EVMs and VVPAT machines. The commission would be logistically equipped by September 2018, to hold parliamentary and Assembly polls together. ERO network would automatically detect duplicate registration of voters. Besides, officers from the booth level to the national level would be under one network and would be able to communicate with each other

Election Commissioner OP Rawat

Election Commissioner OP Rawat said that the ERO, along with electronically transmitted postal ballot for service voters will make it easier to enable e-voting in the future.

This move will undoubtedly give Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s One India One Poll movement a big boost.