Bihar polls to see larger, coloured photos of candidates on EVM papers

New Delhi: Starting with Bihar assembly elections, upgraded EVM ballot papers will be brought in, sporting larger and coloured photographs of candidates for better visibility, the Election Commission announced on Wednesday revising existing guidelines under Rule 49B of the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961.

The photographs of candidates will now occupy three-fourths of the photo space on the EVM ballot paper and serial numbers of candidates/NOTA will be printed in the international form of Indian numerals with a uniform font of size 30 and on 70GSM paper for better readability.

For assembly elections, pink-coloured paper of specified 'RGB values' will be used. When the practice to use photographs was started 10 years ago, the aim was to avoid confusion in constituencies where several candidates shared the same name or have similar sounding names.