The Election Commission has started testing marker pens to eventually replace the indelible ink bottle and brush used for marking fingers as voting proof at poll booths, PTI reported. Feedback from voters to the EC had indicated that the marking done by brushes was not neat. Another reason was that the marker pens, which were used in the recently-held elections in Afghanistan, will be easier to store and transport than ink bottles and brushes.

In 1962, the Election Commission, in collaboration with the Law Ministry, National Physical Laboratory and the National Research Development Corporation, undertook an agreement with Mysore Paints for a supply of indelible ink for the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. Since then, Mysore Paints and Varnish Limited, a Karnataka government undertaking, has provided the ink to all states in India and some foreign countries. The ink is used to mark voters’ fingers during elections to avoid fraudulent multiple voting and malpractice.