In an attempt to amplify their pitch against the electronic voting machines (EVMs), the Opposition parties are set to send a joint memorandum to the Election Commission demanding that the machines should be replaced at the earliest with ballot paper.
Till such a transition is made, the parties, in a draft memorandum circulated among the signatories, demanded that a physical counter check of the paper trail and matching it with electronic vote should happen mandatorily in at least 50% of all EVMs. It is an implement able reform without any additional cost, they argued.
They also demanded that in case the difference of votes cast in favour of the winning candidates and the one coming second is less than five %, then there should be mandatory counting of the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) in every polling station of that constituency.
The decision on the memorandum was taken at a meeting organised by Congress MP and Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad, on Thursday. It was attended by Derek O’Brien of the Trinamool Congress, Y.S. Chowdary (TDP), Praful Patel (NCP), Kanimozhi (DMK), Ramgopal Yadav (Samajwadi Party), D. Raja (CPI) and T.K. Rangarajan (CPI-M).
All the Opposition parties will hold a consultative meeting on Friday to fine-tune the memorandum. They are hopeful that the BSP will send a representative. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu is also expected to turn up on Friday.
“Every vote is equally important and every vote must be counted as cast,” the draft memorandum read. It demanded “expeditious reversion to physical paper balloting.”
The parties also questioned the Election Commission decision to do a physical counter check in hardly 2.5% machines when it now has 100% VVPAT facility.
In the recent Assembly elections in five States in December 2018, they said, there were many instances of EVMs going rogue in high numbers. There were also reports of mismatch between votes polled and those counted in Madhya Pradesh and Telangana, they alleged.
According to them, the speculation about the EVMs being programmed with votes getting transferred to the ruling party no matter which button is pressed raises doubts about the credibility of EVMS and the “purity of the entire electoral process.”
