All checks in place for preventing EVM misuse in phase II of Guj : EC

New Delhi, Dec 12: With the second phase of Gujarat Assembly polls less than 48 hours away, the Election Commission said it had put in place an elaborate system to prevent any possible misuse of EVMs/VVPATs or procedural lapses in the use of EVMs . 

These safeguards are being implemented by ECI, in total transparency, with the active and documented involvement of political parties, candidates and their representatives at every stage, so as to build their confidence on efficacy and reliability of EVMs and VVPATs. 
Due to strict adherence to ECI’s robust security and administrative protocols by Election machinery, there was no room for any possibility of electoral malpractices during the Ist phase of polling held on December 9, the EC said.
A miniscule percentage of technical glitches (broken/stuck buttons, no display etc) in the EVMs & VVPATs were reported, which were immediately addressed by replacing the machines for smooth conduct of polls. 
During Ist phase of polling, only 0.75 % of Ballot Units (BUs), 0.75% of Control Units (CUs) and 2.8% of VVPATs developed technical glitches (broken/stuck buttons, no display etc). 
The comprehensive framework of administrative protocols and procedural safeguards comprise of the First Level Checking(FLC) of all EVMs and VVPATs, strict regime of mock polls conducted on each and every EVM and VVPAT during the FLC, candidate setting and poll day (before the beginning of actual polls), 2-stage randomization of EVMs and VVPATs, stringent security protocols for storage of EVMs and VVPATs before, during and after the polls, and comprehensive videography and CCTV coverage of all EVM & VVPAT related activities and storage in strong-rooms.
All the above election-related activities are carried out in the presence of the representatives of political parties and candidates/election agents.
Mock poll with a few votes is conducted on every functioning EVM at the time of FLC. 
Additionally, at the time of FLC, 1200 votes were cast in 1% of EVMs, 1000 votes in 2% and 500 votes in another 2% of EVMs in the presence of the representatives of political parties. 
A printout of the results of this mock poll as well as a sequential print out of every vote polled during the mock poll were shown to the representatives of political parties. 
Representatives of political parties were allowed to pick machines randomly for this purpose. In rest of the machines, numbers of votes polled during the mock poll were to their satisfaction .
They were allowed to do mock poll themselves. In VVPATs, mock-poll with 6 votes against each of the 16 candidate buttons was done for each VVPATs. UNI