BHOPAL: The State Election Commission (SEC) has rejected the demand of the Congress for holding the forthcoming local body elections through ballot papers. A delegation of Congress leaders, headed by former chief minister Digvijaya Singh, met the State Election Commissioner, BP Singh, and handed over a memorandum demanding local body elections through ballot papers.
“The Congress has been demanding the use of ballot papers for quite a long time. There has been lot of complaints by voters that their vote didn’t go the candidate for whom they pressed the button. There has been a general feeling of distrust against electronic voting machines (EVMs) among voters,” Digvijaya Singh said. This was the main reason why the Congress was against the use of EVMs in the local body elections, he added.
A little later, State Election Commissioner Singh said that the gazette notification for the local body elections through EVMs had already been issued. No changes could be made now, he added.
Singh countered the claims reported by a section of the media that the local body elections would be held when the school examinations would be held, saying, “Most of the polling booths are set up in schools. Elections can wait, but not examinations.” He clarified that the dates for the elections had not been decided yet. The dates are decided taking into consideration various factors, such as examinations, festivals and so forth.
