The Election Commission is actively considering revision of its recount rules so that slips generated by the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) devices can be matched with the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) count.
A top functionary of the Election Commission (EC) told The Hindu recently that the office of the Chief Election Commissioner had received thousands of representations suggesting that changes be made to the recount rules to allow tallying with VVPAT slips.
“It will be a systematic procedure,” the EC official stated. “The physical count of slips in the VVPAT through a process is very much under our consideration.”
Random count
In a recent interview to this newspaper, Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener Arvind Kejriwal had demanded that the Election Commission randomly count VVPAT-generated slips and tally them with EVM results.
The EC functionary said that after the Centre approved the purchase of VVPAT machines, there was little point in looking at why the Commission had to send several reminders to the Government to sanction funds. “I really can’t say why it took so long,” the official stated.
Terming the the machine an “indispensable requirement” to go with the EVM, the EC functionary said the controversy around EVMs and the fairness of the voting process should be put to rest.
The EC functionary said the April-May 2019 Lok Sabha elections would be held with a VVPAT device attached to every EVM. Orders for sufficient number of VVPAT machines had already been placed and these should be made available to the EC by September-October 2018.
He said the Commission was looking to hold the Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat Assembly elections at the end of this year with VVPAT machines. Similarly, elections to the Nagaland, Tripura, Mizoram, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhatisgarh Assemblies in 2018 would be held with the VVPATs in place.
Hate speeches
Asked why the Election Commission had been unable to put an end to hate speeches during campaigns, the official said censure was one part of the EC’s actions and it also recommended filing of FIRs.
“It takes time, we don’t control the legal process,” the official said.
