In the wake of the incident in Assam where an Electronic Voting Machine‘voted’ only for the BJP during a mock poll, social organisation ANHAD (Act Now for Harmony and Democracy) on Saturday demanded that the Lok Sabha elections be postponed. It said EVMs are open to manipulation and stressed reverting to the system of ballot paper.

The organisation claimed the BJP was manipulating EVMs even as the Election Commission maintained they are foolproof.

“We should abandon EVMs and revert to paper ballots as many countries have done. The EVMs are being manipulated to vote in favour of one party. There is still time. The process of getting ballot paper requires extra money, but at least the polls would be fair,” said Shabnam Hashmi, founder member of ANHAD.

She said, “BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi wants to rule at the Centre and for this, the party will go to any extent like manipulating EVMs. Our point is that it will lead to undermining the democratic system in the country.”

The activist also claimed that in the 2010 polls in Surat, there were reports of votes outnumbering voters at five polling booths.

She said, “Complains were made to the Election Commission highlighting that EVMs are not foolproof. However, the Commission has said that EVMs are foolproof.”

She also hinted at a “nexus between the BJP and the Election Commission as all complaints being made to it have not been acted against. Somewhere there is infiltration in the Election Commission it seems. We cannot have free and fair elections with EVMs. Engineers here and in countries like Germany proved that EVMs are open to manipulations,” Ms. Hashmi said.