New Delhi: Rampant malfunctioning of the electronic voting machines (EVMs) in the first three phase of the Lok Sabha polls prompted 21 Opposition parties to race back to the Supreme Court on Wednesday with a review petition to insist on verifying 50% of the EVM results with the paper slips of the Voter Verified Paper Trail (VVPAT) machines.
“Look you may vote for anybody, the votes are being recorded only in favour of BJP and this is happening at any number of polling booths across the country that is our worry to come back to the Supreme Court for justice before it is too late,” one of the petitioners said.
He said the parties are not satisfied with the court’s direction to the Election Commission earlier this month to increase the number of EVMs subjected to checks from one per assembly segment to five in this Lok Sabha and Assembly polls. When VVPAT machines are attached to each and every EVM, there should be no problem to count the paper slips to remove all doubts over the malfunctioning EVMs, he said.
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The EC had submitted an affidavit before a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi that covering 50 per cent shall enlarge the time required for counting to about six days, that counting more VVPAT slips would require extensive training and capacity building of officials in the field and their number would have to be increased substantially.
The parties that have approached the court include Congress, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party, Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party, Aam Aadmi Party, CPM, CPI, Derek O’Brien for the Trinamool Congress, Farooq Abdullah for the National Conference, Samajwadi Party, BSP, Rashtriya Lok Dal, Sharad Yadav’s Loktantrik Janata Dal, and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.
The Opposition parties have raised doubts about the credibility of electronic voting machines a number of times in the last two years. However, the Election Commission has repeatedly denied allegations that the machines can be tampered with.
On Tuesday, alleging manipulation of EVMs, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, along with Opposition leaders including Sharad Pawar, demanded counting of 50 per cent of the VVPAT slips. Though I am a big supporter of technology since 1995, we have serious doubts about the EVMs and they are vulnerable to manipulation, hacking and malfunctioning. The BJP can get votes only through manipulation,” Chandrababu Naidu said.
