Anna Hazare snubs Kejriwal, backs voting by EVMs

PUNE: Social crusader Anna Hazare on Wednesday hit out at Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal ’s demand of holding civic polls through paper ballots and said that those doubting the electronic voting machines (EVM) were trying to go back in time.Speaking to a news channel at his native village Ralegan Siddhi, Hazare said that the demand to go back to paper ballot was not correct."The EVMs should not be discontinued. Those who are doubting the machines are trying to go back in time. The world is moving ahead and EVM is the way to go", he said.Hazare said that holding elections through paper ballot was a painfully time consuming process."There used to be long queues at polling booths because every step in the process took time. Even during counting of votes, all the paper ballots from all ballot boxes had to be mixed first before counting started and the process took hours, " he said.Hazare however urged the Union government and the Election Commission of India to use totaliser machines in elections."A totaliser machine makes it impossible to find out boothwise voting pattern. When candidates find out which areas did not vote for them, they become vindictive and harass voters", he said.He said that he has written a letter to both the election commission and the Union government to purchase totaliser machines but has not received positive response.