EVM, VVPAT tally data shows 100 pc match in recently concluded assembly elections

NEW DELHI: Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trails (VVPAT) show a 100 per cent tally with each other in the recent assembly polls.

While speaking to ANI, an official of the Election Commission of India (ECI) said, "Data shows a 100 per cent match between EVMs and VVPATs, which proves its accuracy and authenticity. The result of these two machines in these last assembly elections reconfirms its genuineness as earlier."

Four states - Kerala, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam -- and one union territory Pondicherry, went to polls earlier this year.

The EVMs were developed in 1989 by the Election Commission of India. The VVPAT units were used across all constituencies in India in the 2019 general elections, however, in 2014, VVPATs were used in eight constituencies.

There were 1,492 VVPATs in West Bengal, 1,183 in Tamil Nadu, 728 in Kerela, 647 in Assam and 156 in Puducherry in the recently held assembly elections

In April 2019, the Supreme Court ruled that it is mandatory for the Election Commission to carry out physical counting of VVPAT slips in five random EVMs in each parliamentary constituency in the 2019 general election.

This direction of the apex court of the country came after a petition was filed by 21 opposition parties where they demanded cross-verification of VVPAT slips in at least 50 per cent randomly chosen polling stations in each AC.

In the 2021 Assembly elections, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had written to the EC and asked for a tally of all VVPAT paper slips in correspondence with the EVM count.

As per the rule, in the event of a mismatch between the number of VVPAT slips and corresponding EVM counts, it is the VVPAT count that prevails.