AMN
The Election Commission will offer an opportunity to all political parties to prove that electronic voting machines (EVMs) used in the recent Assembly polls were tampered with or can be tampered. However, the commission did not give any date for the proposed challenge. The Commission today held an all party meeting in New Delhi to discuss the issues relating to the reliability of the EVMs and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail- VVPATs and electoral reforms.
Issues like making bribery in Elections a cognizable offence, and disqualification on framing of charges for the offence of bribery in elections also came up for discussion. In the meeting, seven National political parties and 35 State parties expressed their views in this regard. Briefing reporters after the meeting Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi said that the political parties have been assured that their concerns regarding EVMs have been taken note of and would be duly considered and addressed through forthcoming challenge and further necessary actions.
Mr Zaidi said that VVPATs of EVMs upto a definite percentage determined by the Commission will also be subjected to counting and it will evolve an appropriate framework in this regard. Mr Zaidi also said, all the future elections will mandatorily be held with VVPATs.
Earlier, in his inaugural address, the Chief Election Commissioner stated that systemic improvements and progressive measures aimed at improving the electoral processes and systems have been evolved by the Commission in cooperation with all political parties. Dr Nasim Zaidi referred the queries raised by some political parties about the incidents of alleged EVM manipulation at Bhind and Dholpur and reiterated that baseless perceptions were generated and there was no case of biased vote results.
The Commission highlighted the wide range of technical, administrative protocol and procedural safeguards that fortify the EVMs and VVPATs against any sort of manipulation or tampering. He said that Commission is open to hear suggestions on how to further improve integrity and credibility of EVMs. To make the election process more transparent, the Commission says it has made proposal for electoral reforms on misuse of money power and bribery during elections.
BJP leader Bhupender Yadav said that during the meeting with Election Commission, the political parties have expressed their views that VVPATs will ensure transparency in elections. Talking to reporters, Mr Yadav said that his party is in favour of transparency in electoral funding. He said, his party also suggested for framing a law on making bribery in election a congnisable offence.
AAP leader Manish Sisodia has welcomed the decision of the Election Commission of holding open challenge on EVMs. He said, during the meeting,several parties expressed concenrns on alleged tampering of EVMs and they were of the opinion that if there is any possibility of tampering then it should be addressed.