All EVMs in Gujarat assembly elections to have paper trail

NEW DELHI: Gujarat is set to become the first state to witness use of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) with paper trail in all polling booths during the assembly elections slated to be held in December.The Supreme Court told the Election Commission on Thursday that there was no harm in employing these machines if the requisite numbers had been procured.EVMs with voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) have so far been used only randomly in select polling booths including in the last round of assembly polls.The SC ’s stand — employing such machines would improve transparency in elections —assumes significance in the wake of complaints by several political parties, including Congress and BSP, that EVMs had been manipulated in UP to give BJP a massive mandate. Though none of the parties took the challenge thrown up by the EC to demonstrate susceptibility of EVMs to tampering, the doubts have lingered on in political circles.A petition by Reshma Vithalbhai Patel requested the court through senior advocate Kapil Sibal and lawyer M Nizam Pasha to direct the EC to use EVMs with VVPAT facility in the Gujarat assembly elections to boost voters’ confidence in the machines.They informed the court that pursuant to funds given by the Centre on the SC’s direction, the EC had so far procured 87,000 VVPAT EVMs as against the total requirement of 70,000 such machines for conducting the Gujarat assembly elections.The bench asked the EC counsel if the figures given by the government and the petitioner were true, “what is the harm in deploying these machines for the December assembly polls in Gujarat”?Listing reasons for not deploying these machines in assembly elections, the EC counsel said, “Though 87,000 VVPAT EVMs have been procured, not all have been tested to be foolproof; if problems arise during voting, it would create complications; and lastly, the staff have not been trained to handle these new machines.”The SC termed these reasons as lame excuses and said, “The manner in which you (the counsel) are arguing, it appears you (EC) don’t want to do it. Your demeanour does not show you want to do it. The EC will file an affidavit on this issue in four weeks and if we find it is possible, then we will direct you to employ the new machines for Gujarat elections.”The Centre’s affidavit also blew away the EC’s excuses. The Centre said, “The EC has procured about 20,300 VVPAT units in the past and the same were used on a pilot basis in elections held since 2013 covering about 143 assembly constituencies and eight parliamentary constituencies up to the year 2016. There has not been a single instance of reported mismatch of EVM-VVPAT output, which confirms reliability of EVMs. Further, an order of additional 67,000 VVPAT units was placed on the manufacturers in the year 2016.”The Centre on April 19 had informed the EC about sanction of Rs 3,173.47 crore in 2017-18 for purchase of 16.5 lakh VVPAT units from Bharat Electronics Ltd, Bengaluru, and Electronics Corporation of India Ltd , Hyderabad.On a petition filed by Subramanian Swamy, the SC had on October 8, 2013 said, “From the material placed by both the sides, we are satisfied that the ‘paper trail’ is an indispensable requirement of free and fair elections. The confidence of the voters in the EVMs can be achieved only with the introduction of the ‘paper trail’. EVMs with VVPAT system ensure the accuracy of the voting system. With an intent to have fullest transparency in the system and to restore the confidence of voters, it is necessary to set up EVMs with VVPAT system because vote is nothing but an act of expression which has immense importance in a democratic system.”“Considering the fact that in general elections all over India, the ECI has to handle one million (ten lakh) polling booths, we permit the ECI to introduce the same in gradual stages or geographical-wise in the ensuing general elections. The area, state or actual booth(s) are to be decided by the ECI and the ECI is free to implement the same in a phased manner,” it had said.