With assembly elections scheduled for this year, the Kottayam district administration has started comprehensive preparations. As part of these efforts, the first phase of inspection of voting machines intended for council elections was launched in the district on Saturday.
The verification process began at the APJ Abdul Kalam Auditorium in Thiruvathukkal, where the voting machines are kept, under the supervision of District Election Officer and Collector Chetan Kumar Meen.
The district has 1791 polling stations. 25% more voting machines – including control and voting units – and 35% more VVPAT machines are being checked to ensure readiness.
The inspection, which should take around 22 days, involves removing the machines from storage, removing old stickers, ballots and seals to verify their functionality. Only those voting machines that pass the first stage of control will be used in the elections.
The inspection is being carried out by tax department officials led by nine engineers from Bharat Electronics Limited. Deputy Collector Elections Sheeba Mathew, First Level Checking (FLC) Supervisor G Prashanth and others were present.
Published – 03 Jan 2026 20:03 IST
