Chief Electoral Officer-Kerala Sanjay Kaul IAS said that the allegation that a candidate received extra votes in the mock poll conducted as part of the commissioning of the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) in Kasaragod constituency is baseless.

Following the complaint, a report was sought from the District Collector (District Election Officer) of Kasaragod regarding this matter. The process of setting up EVMs for an election is called commissioning. It is carried out by engineers from Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) under the direct supervision of the Assistant Returning Officers. The commissioning process takes place in the presence of the candidates or the agents appointed by the candidates. It is also fully webcast.

Confusion was caused when it was alleged that during the mock poll conducted as part of the commissioning in Kasaragod constituency, additional VVPAT slips came out. The fact is that at the time of printing of test ballot slips after symbol loading, some machines were taken to the commissioning table without having taken the full print of VVPAT test slips. When the machine is restarted at the next commissioning table, the symbol of the first candidate was printed along with a standardization slip/first diagnostic slip which was supposed to be printed in the previous session.

The Chief Electoral Officer said that all the voting machines used in the Lok Sabha elections in the state are completely safe and flawless and that there is no need for any apprehensions.