Following its decision to drop Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) from national parliamentary elections, the Election Commission (EC) has now officially discontinued their use in local government elections as well.
This decision was formalized through the "Local Government Polling Station Setup and Management Policy 2025," which was gazetted on June 26 and publicly released on Thursday, July 3.
In contrast to the 2023 version of the guidelines — which included a provision for setting up separate polling booths for EVM-based voting — the newly issued policy omits any mention of such arrangements. As a result, no polling centers will be designated for EVM use in local elections under the revised policy.
Ahead of the 11th national elections in 2018, the EC had rushed to procure 150,000 EVMs. Within just five years, nearly 120,000 of these machines had become inoperable. When the Commission later sought government approval for a new project to repair the machines, the previous administration rejected the proposal. The EC then attempted to extend the project without additional funding, but the government refused to proceed, effectively leading to the cancellation of the EVM project earlier this year.
