A total of 2,659 electronic voting machines (EVMs), 2,654 control units and 2,737 voter verifiable paper audit trail machines to be used in 2,213 polling stations were sent to all the eight Assembly constituencies in the district here on Saturday.

District Election Officer and Collector C. Kathiravan, in the presence of the representatives of all recognised political parties, dispatched the units from the Erode Municipal Higher Secondary School at Kollampalayam. He said the first randomisation of EVMs were completed and sent on Saturday.

Units dispatched include, Erode East - 848 units, Erode West – 1086, Modakkurichi – 1,001, Perundurai – 959, Bhavani – 1,053, Anthiyur – 952, Gobichettipalayam – 1,080 and Bhavani Sagar – 1,071 units. He said that reserve EVMs were also sent to these constituencies.

District Revenue Officer S. Kavitha, Tahsildar (Election) Ravichandran, Assistant Election Officers and others were present.

Pick up vans to transport election materials

The Election Commission will be using pick up vans or tractors to transport election materials to Malliamman Durgham hamlet located inside Kadambur Hills

The hamlet, coming under Bhavani Sagar Assembly Constituency and Nilgiris Parliamentary Constituency, has over 300 electors and could be reached after traversing through 8 km of dense forest from Kadambur. The polling station is located at a middle school in the hamlet. During last election, a tractor was used to transport

the election materials.

Officials said that all the polling stations in the constituency have transport facility, except the polling station at the hamlet.

Hence, they would be using either tractors or pick up vans to tr ansport the materials.