Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Navin Chawla said on Tuesday that the Election Commission (EC) has decided to constitute committees for the Naxalite affected areas and described the upcoming Assembly elections in Maharashtra and Arunachal Pradesh as the “last mile” in the calendar of the EC this year.

Chawla, who was in Shillong for the two-day All India Chief Electoral Officers’ (CEOs) meet, said that if he had to conduct elections again, he would stick with the previous decision of holding elections in the first phase in Naxalite-hit areas. He said security forces had three weeks’ time to settle down before the first phase of polls.

The CEOs’ meeting, held in Shillong after 27 years, reviewed the Lok Sabha elections. Chawla said he was happy that the elections were lauded for its integrity both nationally and internationally. He, however, said there was always room for improvement.

Chawla said: “The voters turnout in Maharashtra was low and we would like voters’ participation to improve in the Maharashtra and Arunachal Pradesh Assembly polls.”

Chawla also countered the perception that EVMs do not have enough safeguards to counter manipulations. He said: “The EVMs have many more safeguards and cannot be manipulated.” He said there is a technical committee which looks after it and the EVMs cannot be tampered. He said “manipulation” cannot take place except if the EVMs are destroyed.