Restore paper ballots, opposition parties tell EC, no faith in EVMs, says Mamata

Months ahead of the Lok Sabha election, opposition parties on Monday demanded that the next general election be held on ballot papers. In an all-party meet with the Election Commission, they said, “EVMs do not reflect the will of the people.” BJP and allies opposed the demand.

The main opposition party Indian National Congress had moved a resolution for the use of ballot paper in the polls in its 84th plenary session in March this year.

As many as 51 political parties attended the meeting that was called to find a political consensus on electoral reforms.

Pertinently, earlier in April, a Mumbai-based RTI activist Manoranjan S Roy had accused the Election Commission of India of not carrying out even a basic audit of the inventory, deployment, transportation and functionality of Electronic Voting Machines, suspecting misuse of the EVMs. The replies to his RTI applications given by the Election Commission of India, EVM manufacturing companies and State Election Commissions had thrown up glaring discrepancies, causing quite a flutter among several stakeholders.

Talking to media after the meeting, Congress leader Mukul Wasnik said,“There have been a number of times when EVMs malfunction and it (the vote) goes to only one political party. We want to know who is repairing the EVMs and how many of the old ones are being used. We want the VVPAT and the EVMs to be checked”.

Going a step further, Trinamool Congress leader and Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee said, “We have no faith in the EVMs,”. She suggested that Election Commission should return to the ballot box in next Lok Sabha election.

After the meeting, Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat said that the Commission has noted down various suggestions regarding use of the ballot paper in election.

“Some political parties said that there are problems with EVMs and VVPATs. These things have been noted down by the Commission,” he said after the all-party meeting.

Over the issue of the “One Nation, One Poll”, the Chief Election Commissioner told media that there were mix opinions.

Expressing his disagreement, he said, “Several parties have expressed their concern and opposed the idea in the meeting”.

“Some made valid points in favour of simultaneous elections,” added the Election Commissioner.

Opposition parties have voiced their concerns over the misuse of EVM machines several times in the past and had attributed the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) consecutive victories in state assembly elections to EVM tampering.

However, clamour for ballot paper elections grew louder in the first week of August when 17 Opposition parties approached the Election Commission demanding that ballot papers be used to conduct the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

Calling lack of trust “too deep-seated and pervasive”, the Opposition led by Congress has demanded that the election should be conducted with the ballot paper till concerns over the use of EVMs are addressed.

The Election Commission has maintained that EVMs are tamper-proof.

Although, most of the Opposition parties supported the idea of ballot paper election, there are some like the AIADMK, Telangana Rashtriya Samithi (TRS) and Biju Janata Dal (BJD), who are not in favour of ballot paper .