Representational image. File
| Photo Credit: B .Jothi Ramalingam

Voters in 28 districts in Tamil Nadu will be able to elect their ward members at the district, union and village levels, and their panchayat presidents, using electronic voting machines (EVM) this time. The term of rural local body (RLB) representatives in these districts has expired on January 5 this year. These voters will elect 91,975 representatives. The term of elected representatives in the other nine districts, Vellore, Ranipet, Tirupattur, Chengalpattu, Kancheepuram, Villupuram, Kallakuruchi, Tirunelveli and Tenkasi will end in October 2026.  

B. Jothi Nirmalasamy, Commissioner, Tamil Nadu State Election Commission (TNSEC) told The Hindu that they planned to introduce EVMs for electing RLBs in a phased manner in these districts. “These people are not new to EVMs, they have used them in State and Central elections. However, since RLBs have a three-tier system, they require multi-post single choice mode in the EVMs, which means there will be four ballot units per control unit for the four posts. If there are more than 16 contestants, an additional ballot unit will be used.” 

“The pilot for use of EVMs in RLBs was conducted in 2019 at Melpuram Panchayat Union in a successful manner. At that time, we had given our design specification to Bharat Electronics Ltd, which had made one for our needs,” she said.  

On Thursday, a team of officials from Bharat Electronics Ltd gave a demonstration of EVMs specifically tailor-made to the State’s needs at the TNSEC. “Funds have been allocated for procurement of EVMs and they will be purchased by following the due process,” she adds. TNSEC Secretary K. Balasubramaniam was also present during the demonstration.