Gujarat elections in December, says EC

Manas Dasgupta

Ahmedabad, October 10

The elections to the Gujarat Assembly would be held as expected in December, Chief Election Commissioner Achal Kumar Joti said here today. 

Joti, who was heading an the EC team on a two-day visit to the state for final discussions with authorities concerned over preparations for holding the elections, told mediapersons that he could not confirm the dates of polling at this stage, “but the elections will be held in December”. 

He said voters’ verification paper audit trail (VVPAT) gadgets would be attached with EVMs in all the 50,128 polling booths at 28,639 polling stations in the state for 182 Assembly constituencies. VVPAT enables a voter to see the name and symbol of the candidate on paper to confirm that the vote has actually gone to the kitty of the intending candidate. 

“Parties have welcomed the introduction of VVPAT and have requested that after its introduction the time frame of voting should be rationalised to achieve maximum voting,” he said, adding Gujarat had 43.3 million registered voters as on September 25, 2017.