Process begins to make EVMs functional

Puducherry Election Department prepares EVMs for Lok Sabha poll, aims to increase voter turnout with targeted outreach activities.

The Election Department has started the process to make the Electronic Voting Machines functional for the April 19 Lok Sabha poll in Puducherry.

Under the supervision of District Election Officer A. Kulothungan, officials deployed for election duties on Thursday incorporated the name of candidates and their election symbol to the voting machines kept at the Motilal Nehru Government Polytechnic and the Government Women’s Engineering College at Lawspet.

Later in the day, Chief Electoral Officer P. Jawahar inspected the preparation of voting machines. All the voting machines for the 23 Assembly segments in Puducherry would be made ready by Friday, said an official.

Meanwhile, the department has prepared an atlas detailing the constituencies that have recorded below 75% voter turnout in the past. In the 2019 Lok Sabha poll, Puducherry recorded 81.9 % voter turnout. Awareness programmes are being held in areas identified for registering low voter turnout, the official said.

“This year, we aim to increase our voter turnout as much as we can. Towards this, we have mapped the low voter turnout areas using geographic information tools. The maps have been circulated to our field functionaries and we have planned our outreach activities to target these areas specifically,” Mr. Jawahar said.