Booths in Belagavi to have four EVMs

BELAGAVI: With 57 candidates remaining in the fray from Belagavi Lok Sabha constituency, the Election Commission will be using four electronic voting machines (EVMS) at each polling booth here. The high number of candidates also poses several challenges to the EC.
Each EVM can have the names of 16 candidates including one button for NOTA. Hence each polling booth needs four EVMs.The constituency has 2,064 polling stations and 8,256 EVMs are needed excluding additional EVMs needed for emergency use in case of any technical problem.
Sources said the election officer has written to the chief election officer seeking additional EVMs, which are yet to arrive. Polling officers are being trained to handle four EVMs at a time. Sources said although four EVMs which will be used are attached to each polling station, only the last machine will have a functioning NOTA button.
Allotting space for polling agents of all candidates in counting centres will be a big problem due to shortage of space. The election officer is said to have sought guidance from the EC on this matter. According to available information, the EC will allot place for polling agents based on priority. First, space would be allotted to national and regional parties. If space is available, it will allot space to agents of independent candidates in alphabetical order.
Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES) had decided to field 101 candidates to grab the attention of the country towards Karnataka-Maharashtra border dispute but it could manage only 45.