New Delhi: The Opposition parties on Monday demanded that the Election Commission (EC) either consider reverting to physical ballot paper for polling or the cross-checking of at least 30 per cent of the voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT). The EC responded by saying that it would provide “satisfactory solution” to the concerns raised by political parties on the EVMs.
The proposal for a return to ballot paper was made by the Opposition parties, which included Congress, SP, BSP, TMC, the Forward Bloc, CPI(M), CPI, and NCP.
“Almost 70 per cent of the parties present agreed to the need to revert to ballot paper,” Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi told the media after an all party meeting was called by the EC on electoral matters.
“In case it cannot be done before the 2019 polls, we have proposed that voting be made more secure by making 30 per cent of all VVPAT verifiable,” he added.
Responding to these demands, chief Election Commissioner O.P Rawat said, “We will definitely look into all the suggestions given by them (political parties) and there will be a satisfactory solution.” The Opposition parties also raised issues of EVM tampering and technical glitches in the VVPAT system.
Mr Singhvi said that Congress, which was represented by Mukul Wasnik and Mohammed Khan, also took up the issue of accuracy of electoral rolls and duplicate entries in it.
Senior officials of the EC said that though nothing has been finalised as of yet, one way to allay the fears of the parties was to increase the number of constituencies wh-ere EVM and paper trail machine results match.
“Some of the parties said going back to ballot is really bad as it will bring back booth capturing. We don’t want (that). At the same time, some parties said there are problems with EVMs and issues with VVPAT slip count and EC should take a call on this,” Mr Rawat said.
The Congress also raised the issue of women’s reservation in the Parliament and state legislatures and that of electoral bonds.
