How VVPAT can decide country’s next govt

New Delhi, May 07: The Supreme court on Tuesday turned down the review petition filed by twenty one opposition party leaders demanding the Election Commission of India to increase random matching of at least 50 per cent of the VVPAT (Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail) slips with EVMs (Electronic Voting Machine) from one to five polling booth per assembly segment in every Lok Sabha constituency.

There were many prominent leader who camped in Delhi including Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Chandrababu Naidu, CPI's D Raja and many.

But, what is VVPAT? And how is it related to the Lok Sabha Polls 2019. Will this decide which government is going to rule in India next?

VVPAT Or Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail is a method of providing feedback to voters using a ballotless voting system.

VVPAT machine is not a separate voting system. It is only an extended feature of EVM. VVPAT is attached to the EVM. Once a voter presses a button on the EVM, VVPAT prints the details on a paper slip.

The VVPAT offers some fundamental differences as a paper, rather than electronic recording medium when storing votes. A paper VVPAT is readable by the human eye and voters can directly interpret their vote. Computer memory requires a device and software which potentially is proprietary.

VVPAT allows the voter to check whether his/her vote has been recorded with the candidate he/she had wished to vote for in the EVM.

In India, the VVPAT system was first used in September 2013 during the by-elections in Noksen Assembly constituency in Nagaland. Later, it was introduced in 8 of 543 parliamentary constituencies as a pilot project during Indian general election, 2014.