PRESS
NOTE
A piece of election history was made in
the remote Tuensang district of Nagaland with the successful culmination of
counting of votes today, i.e, on 7th September, 2013 for the
bye-election to 51-Noksen (ST) Assembly Constituency, where poll was held on 4th
September, 2013 using, for the
first time ever, the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) system with
Electronic Voting Machines. Under the VVPAT system, newly developed by the
Electronics Corporation of India Limited and Bharat Electronic Limited, under
the direction of the Election Commission and its Technical Experts Committee, a
printer is attached to the balloting unit of the voting machine and is kept
along with the balloting unit inside the screened voting compartment. When a voter casts his vote by pressing of
the candidate’s button against the name and symbol of the candidate of his
choice, apart from the red light glowing against the name and symbol of that
candidate, the printer also generates a paper slip containing the serial
number, name and symbol of candidate for whom the vote has been cast. This paper slip remains visible to the voter
through a window covered by glass on the printer and after sufficient time gets
automatically cut and falls into the box permanently attached below the
printer. This enables the voter to verify and satisfy
himself that the vote cast by him for the candidate of his choice has been
actually recorded correctly for that candidate.
In case of any doubt, these paper slips can be counted at the time of
the counting of votes and tallied with the number of votes recorded in the
control unit of the voting machine.
The poll on 4th September, 2013 as well as the counting of
votes today went off smoothly and without any problem. At the time of counting,
the number of votes displayed in the voting machines against each of the two
contesting candidates tallied with the paper slips generated by the printers of
the VVPAT system on actual counting of these paper slips.
51-Noksen (ST) Assembly Constituency had 12088 electors distributed
across 21 polling stations (including one auxiliary polling station). The two candidates who contested the said
bye-election were - Shri C.M. Chang of Naga People‘s Front and Shri Luma Onen
Chang of Indian National Congress. The counting of votes was conducted by the
Returning Officer of 51-Noksen (ST) A.C. in the presence of Commission’s
Observers and Counting Agents of both the contesting candidates. The details of
votes cast are as under :
a)
Total No. of electors : 12088
b)
Total No. of Votes polled
(including postal ballot papers) : 8553
c)
Total No. of postal ballot papers
rejected : 3
Shri C.M. Chang (NPF) secured 5708 votes, whereas Shri Luma
Onen Chang (INC) got 2845 votes and, accordingly, Shri C.M. Chang (NPF) was
declared elected by the Returning Officer.
Election Commission of India
New Delhi, Dated:- 07th September, 2013
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RM//NSK/JS