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EVMs to be used in 30 assembly constituencies in Andhra Pradesh

Electronic voting machines will be introduced in 10 per cent of the 294 assembly constituencies of Andhra Pradesh in the coming assembly election in the last quarter of this year, Election Commissioner of India G V G Krishnamurthy said today.

Soon after reviewing the electoral status and management of elections with the state secretary, the director general of police and chief electoral officer, he told journalists that nine states -- Karnataka, Sikkim, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Maharashtra, Manipur, Orissa, Arunachal Pradesh and Bihar -- were due for elections in the last quarter of this year and the first quarter of the next.

The use of EVMs in the recent elections in Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Rajasthan had proved a success, he said.

In Andhra Pradesh, there are 12,000 EVMs. If required, more would be brought from Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, he said.

Krishnamurthy said one EVM machine could accommodate 16 candidates and the number exceeded that, another machine could be used. He said there were 49 million voters in the state and an additional one to 1.2 million voters would be added to the list for the coming assembly elections.

The voters list would be updated till January 1999 and new voters would be included in the list for the assembly election, he added.

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