The BJP said at Monday’s meeting that while it had always supported VVPATs, it was up to the EC to decide on i... Read More

(This story originally appeared in on Aug 28, 2018)



(This story was originally published in The Economic Times on 28/08/2018)

The Election Commission is actively considering increasing the percentage of VVPAT slips to be counted and verified vis-a-vis the results after doubts over the ‘reliability’ of the EVMs by the opposition parties, ET has learnt.

The EC, however, would decide on the percentage of VVPAT counting in a ‘scientific’ manner and would arrive at a formula after consulting technical experts to minimise error, sources told ET. For the purpose, the poll body is likely to consult the Indian Statistical Institute and others.

The EC wants to establish a clear statistical correlation before opting for increased VVPAT counting. It will accordingly decide on the number of VVPAT auditing per constituency according to a scientific and statistically sound formula.

The issue figured prominently at a meeting EC had with political parties on Monday. The matter is pending in the Supreme Court, with Congress filing a petition demanding increased VVPAT tallying. The court has already issued a notice to the EC on the matter, which is expected to come up for hearing this week.

The VVPAT is a printer-like machine attached to an EVM that allows a voter to audit whether he has cast his vote to the candidate he intended to. First used in 2013, the EC is aiming at 100% VVPAT coverage ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Currently, VVPAT slips in one polling station per constituency are tallied with EVM results. However, most political parties have been demanding that this number should be increased by 10% to 30%.

Almost the entire opposition joined hands on Monday, with the Congress demanding a return to ballot paper. The idea was instantly rejected by the EC. Many parties also suggested that VVPAT counting must be increased to put doubts to rest.

While the Congress demanded a more ‘comprehensive audit’ of the VVPAT slips, AAP asked for an auditing of 20% of the deployed VVPATs and EVMs in a constituency. BJD also backed the proposal to increase VVPAT counting to address the EVM concerns.

The BJP said at Monday’s meeting that while it had always supported VVPATs, it was up to the EC to decide on increasing slip tallying.

The EVM-VVPAT issue apart, there was a consensus among almost all parties over issues related to Section 126 of the Representation of People’s Act and capping expenditure for elections to the legislative councils at the party level. Most parties were also supportive of a proposal to include newspapers and print media under Section 126 that bans election matter 48 hours before polls.

The BJP, however, opposed the idea saying it would go against the right to expression and observed that, in most cases, advertisements in dailies were only exhorting people to go out and vote in large numbers. BJP also opposed capping of party expenditure, saying that this would derail agenda and manifesto-based election campaigning and push it into casteism and parochialism.

The Congress raised the issue of lack of transparency in electoral rolls and demanded door-todoor verification of voters to weed out anomalies. The BJP, on the other hand, favoured an alphabetical publishing of the electoral roll, verification by the deputy collector and keeping electoral roll registration till last date possible to include all voters.

