By speed Post ELECTION COMMISSION OF INDIA NIRVACHAN SADAN, ASHOKA ROAD, NEW DELHI No. 51/8/7/2014-EMS Dated: 8 th May, 2014

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1 By speed Post ELECTION COMMISSION OF INDIA NIRVACHAN SADAN, ASHOKA ROAD, NEW DELHI No. 51/8/7/2014-EMS Dated: 8 th May, 2014 To The Chief Electoral Officers of 1. Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad 2. Karnataka, Bengalore. 3. Tamilnadu, Chennai. 4. Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow. Subject: General Elections to Lok Sabha, 2014 & simultaneous elections to the State Legislative Assemblies-counting of votes-ascertaining the result from the upgraded post 2006 EVM-regarding. Sir/Madam, I am directed to state that existing instructions contained in para in the Handbook for Returning officer under Chapter XV- counting of votes procedure for counting of votes recorded in the Pre-2006 & Post-2006 EVMs. specifies the The Commission has now approved the design of upgraded post 2006 EVMs with some modification in the features available in Pre & Post 2006 EVMs and has procured and used the upgraded post 2006 EVMs in some of the States, in the ongoing Lok Sabha Elections 2014 & simultaneous elections to the State Legislative Assemblies of the States. As per the existing procedure, the result of the votes recorded in the Control Unit of Pre-2006 & Post 2006 is being ascertained without connecting any unit to the Control Unit. Whereas, in upgraded post 2006 EVMs an additional feature has been introduced that the result of the votes recorded in the CU can not be ascertained without connecting a slave unit (i.e. BU/PADU) to the Control Unit. Therefore the Commission has decided that Printer cum Auxiliary Display Unit (PADU) shall be connected to ascertain the result from the Control Unit during the counting of the votes, as only PADU can facilitate printing of result with the help of printer, if required. The Control Unit and PADU shall be inter-connected with the help of inter connecting cable. Thus, for counting of votes in the upgraded post 2006-EVMs, the following procedure shall be followed: 1. At the counting place, only the Control Unit is required for ascertaining the result of poll. The Ballot Unit is not required. Therefore, only Control Unit of the EVM shall be brought to the counting hall from the place of storage. 2. Before bringing the Control Unit to the Counting Hall, ensure that each counting table is provided with one PADU and one PADU is kept with the Micro-observers.

2 3. Take out the Control Unit from its carrying case after examining the seals thereon and removing the same. Thereafter, place the Control Unit on the counting table and examine the seals on the Candidate Set section and Result section and remove the outer seal of the Result section. 4. Thereafter, open the cover of the Result section. On opening the cover of Result section, one green paper shall be visible through the two apertures of the compartment of the Result and Print buttons underneath. NOTE : Do not break / open the seal of special tag of inner Result section compartment. 5. After satisfying that all the seals are intact, connect Printer cum Auxiliary Display Unit (PADU) to the Control Unit. Thereafter, switch ON the Control Unit by pushing the power switch to ON position. The ON lamp of Control Unit will then glow GREEN. 6. Pierce the green paper seal over the Result button. Press Result button, if P A D U is not connected the following message is displayed. CONNECT ANY SLAVE UNIT Check and ensure that PADU is connected to the Control Unit properly. 7. On Result button being pressed, the total number of votes recorded for each candidate at the polling station shall be displayed automatically in the Display Panel in the following sequence : COMPUTING RESULT After the result computation the following messages are displayed sequentially. Each message is displayed for about 7 seconds with a gap with beep for about 2 seconds between the messages. POLL RESULT PDT Poll start time and end time is displayed as follows PST PET

3 Serial Number of the system is displayed as follows SL NUM BCUAA00001 Number of contesting candidates : CANDIDATES 9 Total polled votes is displayed as follows : TOTAL POLLED VOTES CAND - 1 VOTES CAND - 9 VOTES And so on till the last candidate. END

4 8. If required, Result button can be pressed any number of times to enable the Returning Officer, the candidates and / or their agents to note down the above result. 9. Switch OFF the unit by pushing the power switch in the bottom compartment to OFF position. Close the compartment. 10. After the result has been noted, close the cover of Result section. Reseal it in with the seal of the Returning Officer and the candidates / their agents who are desirous of affixing their seals. 11. Remove the seal of the Battery pack section and open its outer door. Remove the power pack. Close the outer door and reseal the Battery pack section Put back the Control Unit in its carrying case. NOTE : In case, printout of the result of the poll is to be taken the printer is also required to be connected to the Control Unit alongwith the PADU After result operation, if CLOSE key or BALLOT key or PRINT + RESULT key or PRINT + TOTAL key is pressed without connecting the PADU the following message is displayed. PADU NOT CONNECTED The responsibility of providing PADU in sufficient quantity has been entrusted to the manufacturers, therefore, make careful assessment of your requirements of PADU and inform the manufacturers well in advance. (The minimum number of PADU required shall be 1 PADU for each counting table to be used plus 1 PADU units for Micro-observers at each counting hall for random checking of result of two EVMs of each round and minimum 1 PADU in reserve for each counting location). A slave unit is required to be connected with the Control unit for ascertaining result in the upgraded Post-2006 EVMs, which is not required in case of Pre-2006 and Post-2006 EVMs. The Political Parties and Contesting Candidates/their agents, as well as counting staff is not familiar with this change in the process of ascertaining results.

5 In case on pressing result button, the Control Unit does not display result, the CU should be kept back inside its carrying case and then be kept in the Returning Officer s custody in the counting hall. Counting of votes in the other machines should continue as usual. In case on pressing result button of the Control Unit, it display Inoperative or TRNG instead of Computing Result, the control unit should be kept back inside its carrying case and then be kept in the Returning Officer s custody in the counting hall and a report with the complete details should be sent to the Commission immediately for Commission s decision in the matter. When counting of votes in other machines is completed, the Returning Officer and Observer should see whether the margin of votes between the first candidate and the runner up is more or less than the votes polled in the malfunctioning machine (s). However, in both cases, whether the margin of votes is more or less than the total votes polled in the malfunctioned machine (s), the Returning Officer should try to retrieve the result by attaching printer with the PADU with the help of engineers of BEL/ECIL. If result could not be retrieved from the malfunctioned Control unit, the result should be declared, if number of votes polled in the malfunctioned Control Units is less than the margin of win, otherwise the matter may be referred to the Commission. Therefore, necessary training on the process of ascertaining results (from upgraded Post-2006 EVMs) shall be provided to the counting staff and Microobservers atleast a day prior to the day of counting. A meeting with the political parties/contesting candidates/their agents shall be conducted atleast 2-days prior to the day of counting, to familiarize them with the process of ascertaining result from the Control Units of Upgraded Post-2006 EVMs, a notice of the meeting shall be given to them in writing well in advance and acknowledgement taken. So that they can brief their counting agents about the use of PADU and process of counting of votes (Upgraded Post-2006 EVMs). Yours faithfully, (Dilip K Varma) Under Secretary Copy forwarded to: 1. The Chief Electoral officers of all States/UTs (except Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh) 2. The CMD, ECIL, Hyderabad 3. The CMD, BEL, Bangalore and