Are electronic voting machines tamper-proof? Should volunteers be involved in conducting elections? These were some of the questions that former Chief Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswami addressed in a seminar held here on Saturday.
Mr. Gopalaswami interacted with the students and members of Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA) at a seminar on ‘Election System in India: Changing Scenario’. It was jointly organised by Department of Public Administration, Anna Adarsh College and IIPA.
Responding to the query on electronic voting machines, Mr. Gopalaswami said that they are stand-alone machines with an option for one-way communication. They cannot be tampered with. However, he conceded that secrecy is not maintained properly in some polling stations and the size of the partition surrounding the machine must be raised. Electronic voting machines help save 8,000 tonnes of paper during each parliamentary election. In the next decade, receipts may be issued to voters, he added.
On volunteers, he said that involving them in the election process here like in the Maldives needs to be discussed as there may be protests from political parties about partiality.
Responding to another question, he noted that presidential elections too have their checks and balances.
Earlier, in his speech, he advised the students to be cautious while exercising their voting rights and elect candidates with good credentials. Mr. Gopalaswami elaborated on the changing trends in the election system and said that now, a good number of legislators have serious criminal cases against them. Legislation is to prevent such candidates from contesting elections is pending.
Sharing his experiences, he asked the students to strive to address the problem of cash for votes. He also narrated interesting anecdotes about the assets of candidates.
IIPA’s Tamil Nadu regional branch chairman P.R. Shampath shared his experiences as an election observer and advised all students to exercise their voting rights. Students from various colleges also participated in speech competition held on the occasion.
