EC tells Supreme Court it is open to putting candidates' photos on EVMs

NEW DELHI: Electronic voting machines may carry the photos of contestants in the future to eliminate confusion among illiterate and not-so-vigilant voters. Currently, they carry only the contestants’ name, party and symbol.

The Election Commission told the Supreme Court on Friday that it was open to the idea of putting photos of all candidates contesting in elections on EVMs to eliminate the possibility of illiterate voters being confused by dummy namesakes propped up by rival parties.

The commission was reacting to a court notice issued to it on a public interest litigation on the matter. In an affidavit filed by secretary Ashish Chakraborty, the commission said the proposal was a good one and would be implemented provided all practical hitches were crossed.

Space constraints on EVMs, long names and multiple language options were hurdles which would have to be surmounted if photos were to be displayed alongside a contestant’s name, party and symbol, the commission said.

It also promised to amend ballot paper units displayed outside polling booths to accommodate candidates’ photos if it decides to display them on EVMs. The EC, through counsel Amit Sharma, promised to consider the suggestion after examining all aspects and try and implement it. The assurance was held out to a bench comprising, Justices MY Eqbal and Kurien Joseph.

The PIL, which had urged the court to direct the commission to include photographs on EVMs, cited examples where some candidates had been defeated because their votes had supposedly gone to dummy namesakes. According to the petition, the commission had failed to curb this problem.