No. of EVMs, polling stations for civic elections finalised

Nashik: State election commissioner Dinesh Waghmare announced that the State Election Commission (SEC) has finalised the requirements for EVMs and the number of polling stations needed for the local body polls.Waghmare told TOI that the SEC will require up to 1.5 lakh ballot units (BUs) and over 80,000 control units (CUs)—the two units that form an EVM—for the polls. "The SEC will set up nearly 80,000 polling stations." "The SEC of Madhya Pradesh has agreed to provide about 1 lakh BUs and over 25,000 CUs. In addition, ECI will be giving us 25,000 BUs and 15,000 CUs. The remaining requirements of BUs and CUs are available in our state and will be utilised in the polls," he said. Waghmare said the BUs and CUs provided by ECI will be used exclusively for BMC elections.Waghmare reiterated that it would not be possible for the SEC to use voter verifiable paper audit trail machines in the elections, although the state Congress had demanded their use. "The SEC will be taking all steps to ensure that the polling and counting of votes for the polls take place in a completely transparent manner," he said. Waghmare said the SEC will adopt the voter list prepared by the office of the state chief electoral officer as of July 1 this year. He said the SEC is not yet able to declare the dates for the polls. "The local civic bodies are finalising the ward formations, which they have to complete within the scheduled deadline. Thereafter, the task of ward-wise splitting of the electorate as per the voter list will be carried out properly. Once this exercise is complete, only then will we be in a position to declare the dates for the polls." The elections will be conducted in three phases in around 685 local bodies.