Hyderabad: In the forthcoming elections, all the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM)s are going to show the candidates’ photos along with their names and the party symbol to make it easier for the voter to identify the political leaders in the fray.
The Election Commission said the provision for printing the photographs will help avoid any confusion which may arise when candidates with similar names contest from the same constituency. The photograph will be printed on the EVM ballot units as well as on postal ballot papers, the EC said.
For this purpose, the candidates are required to submit to the returning officer, their recent stamp size photograph as per the specifications laid down by the Commission.
The EC also said India had gone to polls with photo electoral rolls for the first time in 2009. In that year, Assam, Jammu & Kashmir and Nagaland did not have photo electoral rolls, while elector photo identity cards were not distributed to electors in Assam and Nagaland. Now, all states and union territories have photo electoral rolls and photographs of 99.72 per cent electors are already printed in the electoral rolls.
