'Latest EVMs can take upto 384 candidates including NOTA' says ECI Spokesperson Sheyphali Sharan

Rubbishing rumours that the current EVM machines can only hold up to 100 candidates, Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday has clarified rubbishing any such limitation adding that, the EVMs can take upto 384 candidates.

ECI Spokesperson Sheyphali Saran took to Twitter to explain:

She was responding to an earlier tweet by a user named Ali Sohrab who had spread rumours on Twitter saying:

" In places where there are more than 100 candidates, usage of EVM is not possible. If you wish that polls conducted in your area should be using ballot paper and not EVMs then...
Help more candidates in your constituency to contest in this election and save democracy"

READ |'Current System Of VVPAT Verification Is Most Suitable', Election Commission Tells Supreme Court Amid Opposition's Tirade Against EVM

The Opposition has been skeptical about EVM and its Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) system which will be deployed this Lok Sabha election season and have already filed a writ petition to the ECI.

21 Opposition leaders, led by Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu have demanded that VVPAT slips of at least 50 percent of voting machines in each assembly constituency should be checked randomly in this Lok Sabha 2019 elections. On Friday, the EC has responded to the writ petition with an affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court (SC) stating that the present method of counting the VVPAT trail slips is the most suitable.

In its affidavit, the Election Commission justified the existing system of random counting of the VVPAT slips from one polling booth per assembly segment. It said that the argument presented by the opposition does not hold any ground or base for altering the existing system at this juncture. 

(With inputs from ANI)