ECIL to supply 1 lakh EVMs, targets Rs 1,100 crore turnover

Srinivasa Rao Dasari / Hyderabad

Electronics Corporation of India (ECIL) is gearing up to meet the demand for electronic voting machines (EVMs) for the coming Lok Sabha and assembly elections in various states. ECIL has got an order to supply about two lakh machines from the Election Commission (EC) this year and the corporation will be completing the supply of one lakh EVMs this month. ECIL is targeting a turnover of Rs 1,100 crore for 2003-04 as against Rs1,010 crore in the previous fiscal.

It is estimated that 10 lakh EVMs are required to conduct polls totally on EVMs.

Only two companies—the Hyderabad-based ECIL and the Bangalore-based BEL—have been involved in making EVMs in the country and these two have so far supplied close to nine lakh machines to the Election Commission. ECIL is also planning to export EVMs to different countries that have adopted the system of conducting polls on these machines. The corporation is customising EVMs to meet the specific requirements of other countries. According to G P Srivatsava, CMD of ECIL, discussions with the US are currently on for supply for these machines.

“We will supply an additional one lakh machines by February or the first week of March to meet the EC’s requirements to conduct polls on EVMs. The corporation has designed and developed these EVMs with indigenous technology and we don’t have any technical tie-up other than for the purchase of components such as ICs,” added Srivatsava.

EVM functions

The electronic voting machine is a microprocessor-based instrument, which makes the election process simple and rig-proof, leaving no scope for invalid votes and which maintains total secrecy of voting data. The EVM comprises two sub-units—a control unit and a ballot unit—and a five-metre long cable that interconnects these two. Electric power for the two units is derived from a power pack placed in the control unit. In the polling booth, the presiding officer keeps the controlling unit with him and keeps the ballot unit in a separate enclosure of the voting compartment. The EVMs have been designed to operate in single post and single vote mode or double post and single vote mode, based on the principle of one vote per post per voter. Double post, single vote mode enables the use of the EVM for conducting simultaneous elections to the Parliament and state legislatures.

In the EVM, one ballot paper per unit is used and this is fixed below the transparent acrylic sheet of the ballot unit. As in the traditional ballot paper, this also lists names of the candidates and their symbols. The voter has to press a button against the candidate of his choice to cast a vote and an audio-visual signal confirms that the vote has been recorded. At the end of the poll, the control unit and ballot unit are switched off and sealed and sent to secure storage centres till the counting day.

On the day of counting, when the result button on the control unit is pressed, the total number of votes cast and individual votes recorded against each candidate are displayed sequentially. EVMs can be reused in subsequent elections by simply pressing a button to erase the votes recorded in the earlier poll and changing the ballot paper in the ballot unit. The machines allow a maximum of 64 contesting candidates and each voter can cast one vote. Mechanical, electrical and software security features are provided to ensure the integrity of the voting data. The ballot unit is a compartment to securely house the ballot paper of up to 16 candidates. Four ballot units are required to accommodate 64 candidates. For sealing of unused vote buttons, a mechanical and electrical sealing facility is also incorporated.