Chief Electoral Officer Rajat Kumar has refuted the charges on tampering of the electronic voting machines asserting that there was no scope for utilising the EVM to favour a particular parties or candidates.
The machines would be randomised multiple times before they would enter the polling stations avoiding scope for securing information about the status of the respective machines. The CEO was addressing a a one-day workshop for radio jockeys on electoral process here on Wednesday.
He wanted the radio jockeys to understand the various aspects of elections, including software tools used, and educate the people on how to enrol themselves as voters. The radio jockeys could create awareness about the manner in which mistakes could be rectified in the voter cards and raise awareness among the people on lodging their complaints against any irregularities.
Cooperation by the jockeys would improve enrolment of voters leading to a higher voting percentage which would ensure a healthy democracy. He regretted that there was apathy towards voting in urban areas because of the disconnect between educated voters and politicians.
This could be seen from the fact that voting percentage in Hyderabad was less than 50 % in the recently held Assembly elections whereas the percentage was in excess of 76 in Chhattisgarh in spite of the Maoist related problems. People should participate in voting and could exercise the NOTA (none of the above) option so that the winning candidates would know how many voters were against him which could make sure his/her stay as MLA/MP was not comfortable. The CEO asserted that there was no scope for any damages to the EVMs which were robust and tamper proof. The highest judicial body, the Supreme Court, went deep into the several petitions filed against the EVM machine and delivered clear judgements in its favour.
Joint CEOs Amrapali Kata, and Ravi Kiran also spoke. Mr. Rajat Kumar told reporters later that a case had been booked in the case relating to a false voter identification card coming out on his name.
