EVMs being 'tossed like a football': CEC Sunil Arora
No question of going back to ballot: CEC Arora. (File picture: PTI)
Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora has said he is "hurt" that Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) are being "tossed like a football" by political parties. He doubled down on the integrity of the system, and said the EC is increasing its efforts to ensure the number of EVM malfunctions are brought to nil.
Arora, who took charge as CEC on December 1, pointed to the recent elections in five states to underline that the number of instances of malfunctioning EVMs was already low. He said of the 1.76 lakh EVMs deployed in the five states, less than one percent had an problems. However, he said the EC is trying to move forward to reduce its error margin.
"We are not satisfied. We are moving forward to ensure that there are not even a few incidents (of malfunction)," he told news agency PTI. He added that tampering and malfunctioning are two different things. "Tampering shows mala fide (intention). Malfunction can happen," he explained.
Arora also indicated that the attacks on EVMs could just be cases of political expediency. "If the result is 'X', it is okay. But if it is 'Y' then the EVM is faulty," he said.
Inviting voters, political parties, media and other stakeholders in the election to exercise their right to question the impartiality of the EC, Arora reiterated that there is no question of returning to ballot boxes for elections in India.
He also said the EC had started its preparations for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, and that it would be prepared to conduct elections even before the current Lok Sabha completes it term.
2019 is going to be a busy year for the EC. Apart from the Lok Sabha polls, Assembly elections would also have to be held in Jammu and Kashmir, Odisha, Maharashtra, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim