New delhi, January 26: BJP’s Parliamentary Party chairman L K Advani has asked the Election Commission to include the issue of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and apprehensions on their functioning, expressed by various parties (including the BJP, the TDP and the AIADMK among others), in its proposed meeting with representatives of political parties on paid news.
Drawing from experiences from the world over, Advani said “there’s no such thing called a tamper-proof electronic (voting) machine”. “The Commission intends to discuss the question of paid news — a form of media corruption that has besmirched elections lately.
I suggest that this meeting should also include in its agenda the misgivings that have been voiced in different parts of the world, and lately in India also, as to the dependability and fairness of EVMs,” Advani posted on his blog on Monday. Advani had begun blogging during his prime ministerial campaign but left it after the party’s Lok Sabha campaign.
“It is significant that Germany, technologically one of the most advanced countries of the world, regards EVMs so risky for fair elections as to ban their use altogether. The USA has not gone that far. However, 32 out of the 50 states have passed laws mandating that EVMs can be used only if there is a paper back-up for every vote cast electronically,” Advani wrote on his blog.
“In the US, the VVPAT voting machine produces a paper record of every single vote cast by the voters on the machine. After casting vote on the EVM the voter will examine the physical printout and if satisfied that there is no discrepancy, deposit the vote in a ballot box.
There is a legislation pending in the US Congress seeking to make this state law a federal law. I hope the proposed meting of the Election Commission with political party representatives would agree to have a similar law framed by the Indian Parliament also,” Advani wrote.
Advani had triggered the debate on the EVMs in the country saying that though his party never questioned the election results, there were apprehensions about the malfunctioning of the EVMs and that the concerns should be addressed by the EC.
—Agencies