CHENNAI: The Greater Chennai Corporation on Wednesday began verification of EVMs used in 14 polling booths in Kolathur assembly constituency in the recent election following a petition filed by former chief minister and DMK president M K Stalin. Stalin lost the seat to Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam’s V S Babu by 8,795.
Based on Stalin’s complaint to the EC, the GCC began verification of EVMs in 14 polling booths recommended by Stalin where he had said the votes were in his favour but the EVMs did not record it.
“We began verifying the EVMs in polling stations 1,4,17,28,32,75,78,79,84,87,112,122,152, and 170. All 36 candidates are invited for the verification process,” GCC commissioner G S Sameeran, who is the district election officer, said.
“The exercise will be carried out in two phases. In phase 1, three ballot units, one control unit and one VVPAT unit of two polling stations will be verified with the supervision of engineers of Bharat Electronics Limited and the presence of chief agent of the candidate,” he said.
The chief agents would be shown the votes polled by each candidate as recorded in the burnt memory and no discrepancies were found.
“In the second phase, a mock poll involving a minimum of 500 votes and a maximum of 1,400 votes will be conducted. The entire exercise will verify the authenticity of EVMs,” he said, adding that the verification drive would continue for seven days. The verification is expected to go till 7pm daily.
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