Election Commission says Lok Sabha 2019 election results maybe delayed due to VVPAT matching: The voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) matching could delay the declaration of the Lok Sabha elections 2019 results, a report quoting the Election Commission said. The 7-phased 2019 polls will come to an end on May 19, 2019, while the counting of the votes will take place on May 23, 2019. The reports said that the results of the election that mostly take a few hours to be declared could get delayed by a longer time following the commission’s directions to match VVPAT slips of five booths in each assembly constituency.
The EC had decided to use the VVPAT machines after the Opposition raised objections over the functioning of the electronic voting machine (EVM) after the results of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. On April 8, the Supreme Court had ordered increasing VVPAT verification from just one to five EVMs per Assembly segment in a Parliamentary constituency.
However, the decision was opposed by 21 leaders of the opposition parties, who filed a review petition seeking 50% of the EVMs should be randomly checked using the VVPAT in every assembly segment for the Lok Sabha election. However, the apex court denied the plea, a major setback to the 21 leaders in the Opposition.
Deputy election officer, Kanpur Nagar, Kehari Singh was quoted by the TOI saying that it is yet to be decided by the observer that whether to match VVPAT Slips after counting of votes or match the votes booth-wise. He added that the results might get delayed if the matching of the VVPAT slips took place after counting.
