Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa approach BEL for EVMs

New Delhi, Apr 12 (PTI) Indian electronic voting
machines (EVMs), are all set to go places with six countries,
including Mauritius, Singapore and Sri Lanka, approaching
Bharat Electronic Ltd (BEL), one of the manufacturers, with a
demand for them to be used for elections in those countries.

After Nepal and Bhutan, six more countries have shown
their interest in procuring EVMs for use during elections,
Naveen Namboodiri, Deputy Manager (Corporate Communications)
of BEL, told PTI, adding, officials of Mauritius, Malaysia,
Singapore, Namibia, South Africa and Sri Lanka have approached
them, for the purpose.

"We have customised the EVMs to meet the electoral
requirements of these countries. We have given demonstrations
in these countries and further negotiations are on to address
their concerns since the EVMs will change electoral process,"
he said.

The EVMs, which can withstand rough handling and
variable climatic conditions, were used for smooth conduct of
the polls in Nepal and Bhutan recently and elections conducted
in the Kathmandu-1 constituency using these machines were part
of a pilot project.

In April last year, India supplied 200 EVMs and 600
additional units to Nepal for use in the Constituent
Assembly elections. Last month, India also handed over EVMs
worth USD 1,50,000 to the Election Commission of Nepal.

The Electronic Corporation of India Ltd, which also
produces such equipment, had supplied the EVMs to Bhutan
during its last general elections.

The EVMs are becoming popular because it eliminates
the possibility of invalid and doubtful votes and makes the
process of counting much faster. An EVM can record a maximum
of 3,840 votes.

Meanwhile, the BEL has supplied 1,02,000 EVMs worth Rs
100 crore to the Election Commission for the coming general
elections.

With this, the availability of EVMs with the Election
Commission has gone up to 13,68,430 which will be used during
the five-phased elections starting on April 16.

The EVMs were used in the entire country for the first
time in the 2004 general elections in which 10.75 lakh
machines were used out of which about five lakh were
manufactured by BEL, the official said.

The main advantage of the EVM is that it is a
standalone machine which does not have to be connected to any
network.

All procedures during the polling process, from the
pressing of a button to the counting of votes, can be recorded
in the EVM and stored up to five years.

EVMs are highly cost effective as it reduces the huge
costs of transportation, security of ballot boxes, printing
thousands of tonnes of ballot paper and hiring counting staff.

Besides being tamper-proof, the EVMs are also easy to
operate and deliver instantaneous results. PTI BKM
DEP