Chief Election Commissioner Achal Kumar Jyoti has said that the method of providing feedback to voters about voting would be introduced during the upcoming Gujarat Assembly polls to be held in two phases on 09th and 14th December and in successive Assembly and other polls across the country.

Jyoti was in Agarthala yesterday to hold consultations with State’s civil and police officials on the feasibility of conducting Assembly polls in the State early next year. Later, speaking to newsmen, Jyoti said that a final voters’ list would be released before 05th January after which the date of Assembly polls would be announced.

“During the upcoming Gujarat Assembly polls and in all the Assembly and other polls to be held across the country, the VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail or Verifiable Paper Record-VPR) method of providing feedback to voters would be introduced. This would become a permanent feature in all kinds of polls to be held across the country in future,” Jyoti announced.

“The VVPAT machine, which is operated by a battery, can’t be tampered with and would be used in all the 3170 polling booths in Tripura during next month’s Assembly polls. New Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and VVPAT machines would be procured very soon for operational use,” Jyoti informed.