Ballot papers likely for Madurai corporation

Voters of expanded Madurai Corporation may not get the opportunity to push the buttons of electronic voting machines (EVM) in the local body election, as the State Election Commission (SEC) is mulling the option of retaining ballot papers for the city this time also.

“SEC has asked us to be ready to use both the EVMs and ballot papers, as it is considering use of ballot papers instead of EVMs,” Corporation Commissioner and Returning Officer S. Natarajan said here on Friday.

Immediately after the 2006-general elections to local bodies, the SEC took a policy decision to introduce EVMs for urban local bodies that included corporations, municipalities and town panchayats.

Though Mr. Natarajan said that the SEC was yet to take the final call on the issue, official sources said that usage of ballot papers was more likely. The reason for the sudden change in the mode of conduct of election is the likelihood of using more than one ballot unit.

More than 16 candidates

Thirty two candidates are contesting for the post of Madurai Mayor after the scrutiny of 44 nominations was taken up on Friday. (Decision on accepting one more nomination would be taken on Saturday).

In all probability, a second ballot unit has to be used for the election of Mayor as there would be more than 16 candidates in the fray — one ballot unit can have only 16 options.

Mr. Natarajan said that same was the situation in around 10 wards where the number of contestants for the post of councillor was more than 16.

However, the Commissioner said that it was not clear whether ballot papers would be used uniformly in all the 100 wards for both the posts of Mayor and councillor or a mix of EVMs and ballot papers. “Only the SEC has to make the final decision,” he said.

Not anticipating that so many candidates would contest in the election for Mayor or councillor, the Corporation officials were conducting checks on only a little over 2,400 EVMs (two each for 1,200 polling stations in the city).

Only on Thursday, the Commissioner said that efforts were being taken to move additional EVMs from Madurai Collectorate and neighbouring districts.