The Election Commission of India — variously called the Election Commission, the ECI or EC — was set up in 1950 as an autonomous constitutional authority responsible for carrying out election processes in India. It administers elections to the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, State Legislative Assemblies, and the offices of the President and Vice President.
Headquartered in Delhi, the Election Commission consists of three members — a chief election commissioner and two other commissioners — who are appointed by the President. They have a tenure of six years or until they reach the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier. The Election Commission prepares, maintains, and updates the electoral roll; supervises the nomination of candidates; registers political parties and classifies them on national and state levels; and monitors election campaigns, including political fund-raising.
As a principle, no one should have an issue with more EVMs – earlier one, now five per Assembly constituency – being verified by counting the paper slips. Let a few hours more be taken. People who voted on 11th April will in any case be waiting till 23rd May. Rightly or wrongly, the Opposition is agitated over this issue. Obduracy will simply strengthen doubts. We are certain no one has anything to hide.