Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) could not escape controversy during Sunday’s municipal elections with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal alleging irregularities and the Delhi State Election Commission (SEC) standing by the machines.
While polling was under way, Mr. Kejriwal tweeted: “Reports from all over Delhi of EVM malfunction, people wid voter slips not allowed to vote. What is SEC doing? [sic]”.
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18 EVMs changed
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Denying both charges, the DSEC said that the EVMs had been checked thoroughly before polling started at 8 a.m.
A total of 58 EVMs were replaced even before polls opened after mock elections.
After polling started, a total of 18 EVMs were changed: five each in the North Delhi Municipal Corporation and the East Delhi Municipal Corporation and eight in the South Delhi Municipal Corporation, said State Election Commissioner S. K. Srivastava.
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Responding to questions regarding Mr. Kejriwal’s statement, Mr. Srivastava said: “We used more than 13,000 EVMs and had to change only 0.14%, which is normal as it happens in any election.”
Among the reasons to change the EVMs were battery problems, which caused the beep sound after a vote is cast to be not loud enough.
‘Polls went off well’
“The elections went off well and peacefully. It was proved that EVMs cannot be hacked and are robust machines,” said Mr. Srivastava.
The use of EVMs had been questioned by the AAP and other Opposition parties after recent elections to Assemblies in five States.
AAP plea
The Aam Aadmi Party had even moved the Delhi High Court to ask for paper ballots to be used instead of EVMs for the municipal polls. The petition was dismissed.