B’luru civic body polls after May 25 with ballot papers: State EC

Bengaluru: Elections to the five city corporations under the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) will be held after May 25 with ballot papers instead of EVMs, Karnataka State Election Commissioner G S Sangreshi said on Monday. He also said that zilla and taluk Panchayat polls, which are expected later this year, will also be held using ballot papers.

"Elections will be held tentatively after May 25, after SSLC (class 10) and PUC (class 11 and 12) examinations are over, and before June 30," Sangreshi added.

The Supreme Court had last week asked the Karnataka government and the state election body to hold Bengaluru local body polls by June 30. Speaking to reporters here, the Commissioner said, this time the GBA election will be held using ballot papers.

"There are two best practices to hold elections, ballot papers were being used since the beginning, but since 20-30 years ago EVMs are being used. Use of ballot papers is not barred by law or by the judgements of the Supreme Court," he said, defending the decision to use ballot papers. The Congress government in Karnataka in September last year had decided to recommend to the State Election Commission (SEC) to hold all the future panchayat and urban local body polls in the state using ballot paper instead of Electronic Voting Machines, claiming there is an erosion of confidence and credibility, among the people towards EVMs.

Noting that developed countries like America too use ballot papers, the state election commissioner said, most elections like Gram Panchayat, Cooperative polls are held using ballot papers, except Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

"However, last time the Bengaluru corporation polls in 2015 were held using EVMs," he noted.