At an all-party meeting hosted by the Election Commission on Monday, the Congress party-led several other political parties to demand a return to paper ballots for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies opposed. The Election Commission later indicated that it would work towards a “satisfactory solution” to the Opposition’s suggestions.
The Congress also complained of detection of 6 million in Madhya Pradesh and 4.5 million ghost or fake voters in Rajasthan electoral rolls and demanded a thorough revision. The two states, along with Chhattisgarh and Mizoram, are scheduled to go to polls by November-end.
The Congress asked the Election Commission to make public specifications of electronic voting machines, or EVMs version 2, the older machine being used by the Election Commission, and EVM version 3, the latest machine, to inspire confidence in the electorate.
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said as many as 13 per cent of EVMs, according to the Election Commission’s data, had malfunctioned during the Kairana Lok Sabha by-election in Uttar Pradesh on May 28. He said the Election Commission should make public where these machines are repaired.
After the meeting, Chief Election Commissioner O P Rawat said that the Election Commission will “definitely look into all the suggestions given” by political parties and “there will be a satisfactory solution to them."
The Congress, Samajwadi Party, Nationalist Congress Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Trinamool Congress and other opposition parties flagged the issue of malfunctioning of electronic voting machines, or EVMs, their tampering and technical glitches in the voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) system. Nationalist Congress Party leader D P Tripathi said his party’s representative also raised the issue of lack of confidence in EVMs.
The Congress suggested that at least 30 per cent of EVMs in each constituency should be matched with the paper audit trial, while Aam Aadmi Party said it should be matched in at least 20 per cent EVMs. Currently, VVPATs are used in all polling stations but results of EVMs and VVPATs are matched in one polling station per constituency.
"Nothing final has been decided yet, but one way to allay fears is to increase the number of constituencies where EVM and paper trail machine results are matched," a senior EC official said after the meeting.
"Some of the parties said going back to ballot is really bad as it will bring back booth capturing...we don't want (that). At the same time, some parties said there are problems with EVMs, there are issues with VVPAT slip count so why not EC takes a call on this," Rawat said.
Asked about the stand of the EC on EVMs and whether it remains the "same" as it was in the past, the Chief Election Commissioner dubbed it as a "hypothetical question".
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said 70 per cent of political parties demanded that the EC revert to the old system of ballot paper during elections. The Congress also demanded that ceiling be imposed on the expenditure by political parties during poll campaign. Currently, there is only a ceiling for individual candidates and not political parties.