The Election Commission on Tuesday told representatives of Opposition parties that “delay in counting” was not the reason for not verifying the vote count in 50% of the EVMs (electronic voting machines) with VVPAT (voter-verified paper audit trail) slips.
A delegation of Opposition leaders, including Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, Congress leaders Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Ahmed Patel and Ashok Gehlot, AAP leader Sanjay Singh, CPI leader D. Raja and CPI(M) MP T.K. Rangarajan, met the Election Commission on Tuesday evening, hours after the Supreme Court dismissed their petition on the issue.
A Supreme Court Bench dismissed the review petition filed on April 24 by 21 parties for 50% verification.
Currently, the Election Commission makes the verification in only five randomly selected polling stations in an Assembly segment.
The Opposition parties also raised the question on what the panel would do in case it finds any discrepancy during the verificiation. According to sources, the Election Commission has said it will be issuing detailed guidelines on the issue.
Speaking to presspersons after the meeting, Mr. Naidu said his party (the Telugu Desam Party) would not give up the fight on the making the electoral process more transparent. “In order to ensure a free and fair election, it was absolutely critical for the Election Commission to work transparently,” he said.
CPI leader D. Raja said that while the Opposition parties respected both the Supreme Court and the Election Commission, it was the ruling BJP government which did not pay heed to any rules.
“We have respect for SC and EC, unlike the BJP. It is the BJP and Prime Minister — they are undermining constitutional bodies and institutions. In fact, they want to keep them under siege. This is why we are knocking on the doors [of the EC] for the larger interest of democracy,” he told The Hindu .
Congress MP and Supreme Court lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi said this petition was filed to underline a grave and serious threat to democracy. While saying that the Opposition respects and will abide by the decision of the Supreme Court, he said that without any violation of any law, this movement was an all-India campaign to make the electorate and the citizens aware of the perils and pitfalls of the current electoral process.
