Election Commission should consider paper ballots, says Manish Tewari

New Delhi: A major row erupted last week over a video of a VVPAT demonstration by a poll official in Madhya Pradesh, where the machine attached to an EVM allegedly dispensed slips of only BJP. The Congress has now demanded that if there is trust deficit in using EVMs the Election Commission of India should go to paper ballots. Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said “Now if that confidence is not there, the Election Commission does not require to become the advocate of the electronic voting machines. The Election Commission could very well turn around and say that if the stakeholders do not have confidence, yes we are ready to explore the possibility of shifting voting to the alternative system of paper ballots.”

The Congress on Monday said the Election Commission is only the arbiter and not the controller of the democratic process. Mr Tewari further added, “Ultimately democracy is based on public trust and if there is a feeling of widespread distrust in the Electronic Voting Machines, the Election Commission should introspect.” He said the fact that EVMs can be tampered with is something which has been demonstrated over and over again by different stakeholders.

The Congress leader wondered how it bothered the EC that if rather than EVMs, the voting is done on paper ballots. He said “ultimately if the stakeholders, whether rightly or wrongly, are apprehensive that these machines are being tampered upon or are capable of being done so, there is no reason for Election Commission to be defensive about it”.

Tewari said if the stakeholders of the democratic process are feeling apprehensive, whether rightly or wrongly, the Election Commission should walk the extra mile and voluntarily say that “alright if the stakeholders are not having confidence in this paradigm, we can have the next election on paper ballot. What is the difficulty with that?”