Frontline – July 05, 2019

ELECTIONCOMMISSION

THEgeneral electionof 2019
yieldeda stunningandincredible
mandate in favourof theBharatiya
JanataPartyandits allies.Butwas
the votingandcountingprocessthat
delivered thisverdict a credibleone?
Evenbefore the resultswerean-
nounced, questions were raised
aboutthe conduct of the election,the
allegedly partisanroleplayedby the
ElectionCommission(E.C.)andthe
possibilityof electronicvotingma-
chines(EVMs)beingtamperedwith
or manipulatedby vestedintereststo
generate a favourable outcome for
therulingpartyandthecoalitionit
leads.Suchmisgivingshaveso far
not beenallayedor evenmitigatedby
the E.C.,whichhaschosen to stone-
wallquestionsundertheRightto
Information (RTI)Act,2005,on the
functioning,storage andmanaging
of EVMs frompollingtofinal count-
ing.Suchopaqueness hasled to op-
position parties and civil society
becomingsuspiciousof theresults.
Thenotionis gaininggroundamong
the publicthatan “EVMsarkar”has
beeninstalledat the Centre.
At a convention of partyworkers
in Mumbai on June10, Nationalist
Congress PartychiefSharadPawar
saidit shouldbe ascertainedwhat
exactly transpired after a voter
pressed the buttonagainstthe name
of a partycandidateof hisor her
choiceandit gotreflected on the
voter-verified paper audit trail
(VVPAT)system. He hadearliersaid
thattheveracity of EVMs mustbe
discussedby theopposition in the
presenceof expertsandtechnocrats.
CongressspokespersonSanjay Jha

recentlytweeted thatthe EVMprob-

lemcouldonlybe solvedif all opposi-

tionpartiesinsistedon the scrapping

of EVMs. At another level, the

former bureaucrat M.G. Devasa-

hayam,writinginTheWire, attrib-

uted the electoral outcome to

“money,EVM machines and the

media”.

Suchconcerns airedin public

raisedoubtsaboutthe infallibilityof

EVMs.In fact,overthepast few

weeks,severalglaringdiscrepancies

in the electionprocesshavebeenre-

portedfromacross the country,call-

ing attentionto lakhsof missing

EVMsandunsecuredtransportation

and storage of these voting ma-

chines.Data putup on the E.C.web-

site(subsequently deleted)revealed

thatin as many as 371 constituencies

there was a huge discrepancy

betweenvotespolledandvotescoun-

ted.Goingby theinitialfigures put

out by the E.C.,it wasreportedby the

websiteNewsclickthatthediffer-

RANJEET

KUMAR

SECURITYPERSONNELleavingfor pollingboothswith electronicvoting

machinesand VVPATon the eve of the secondphase of the generalelection at

Bhagalpurin Bihar on April 17.

In EVM do we trust?

Voicesagainsttheuseofelectronicvotingmachines,whichare

widely seenas blackboxesthatlacktransparencyandverifiability,

aregrowinglouder.BYDIVYATRIVEDI