Dainik Nation News Portal
DAINIK NATION BUREAU
Excess exposure to illumination in the polling states resulted in malfunctioning of VVPAT (voter-verifiable paper audit trail) machines for which complaints were registered during Lok Sabha bypoll in Kairana (UP) and Bhandara-Gondiya (Maharashtra).
This was revealed in a preliminary report submitted by special teams constituted by the Election Commission to look into the matter.
In a press statement on Friday, the poll panel said: “The preliminary fact-finding reports submitted to the Commission have indicated that there were two major technical reasons for the malfunctioning — failure of contrast sensor and length sensor… These errors are mainly caused by excessive exposure to illumination in the polling stations.”
The poll panel asserted that it had asked the manufacturers and the Commission’s technical expert committee to suggest “additional design improvements as well as “suggestions on any layout changes in the polling stations to prevent any excessive exposure to illumination in future”. “Manufacturers have also been asked to do a detailed technical analysis once the VVPATs are free from election petition (as these cannot be currently accessed in strong rooms till 45 days election petition period is over),” it said.
