Mumbai, Jan 14 (PTI) The Maharashtra State Election Commission (SEC) on Wednesday said that Printing Auxiliary Display Unit (PADU) will be used only if technical difficulties arise during the counting of votes for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections.
In a statement issued a day before the crucial election, the SEC said the facility to view results using PADU would be available only in rare circumstances.
The voting machines manufactured by the Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) are being used exclusively for Thursday’s BMC elections, the commission said, adding that these machines belong to the Election Commission of India and are of the ‘M3A’ type.
As per SEC orders, votes must be counted by connecting the Control Unit (CU) to the Ballot Unit (BU), and PADU should be used only in rare and exceptional cases of technical failure.
Further, vote counting using PADU must be carried out in the presence of technicians from BEL, it said, adding that 140 PADU units have been made available.
As per its directions, the BMC carried out demonstrations of PADU for representatives of political parties, the SEC said.
Earlier in the day, MNS chief Raj Thackeray had accused the SEC of keeping political parties in the dark about PADU. PTI ND KRK
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