Around 900 electronic voting machines (EVMs) used in the election to the 40-member Mizoram Assembly held on November 25 last year, will not be sent to Arunachal Pradesh as planned, state election department officials on Thursday said.
The officials said the EVMs, proposed to be used in the coming Lok Sabha elections in Arunachal Pradesh would not be sent as there was a court case in the matter and the Mizo National Front (MNF) was opposed to it.
It might be recalled that the MNF submitted 23 petitions in the Gauhati High Court asking for constitution of an expert committee to check the reliability of the EVMs made by the Electronics Corporation of India Ltd (ECIL) and used in the state Assembly polls.
The MNF said the High Court, on March 11 had ordered that no election material, including those EVMs used in the constituencies where the petitioners did not challenge its veracity, should be shifted until disposal of the election petition.
Joint Chief Electoral Officer H Lalengmawia said that 1,716 EVMs made by the Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) and procured from Maharashtra to be used in the coming elections to the lone state Lok Sabha seat would also be returned.
Lalengmawia said the EVMs would be returned as many of them were found to be made prior to 2006 and incompatible to the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT).
The MNF had earlier protested the use of ECIL-made EVMs, but made no objections to the use of BEL-made EVMs in the Mizoram polls.
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