There were far too many technical failures in the Lok Sabha and Assembly bypolls held earlier this week. While much of this lay in the malfunctioning VVPAT system, which gives the voter a verifiable paper audit, the Election Commission’s credibility in ensuring foolproof arrangements took a major hit. The 123 booths where repolling was held on Wednesday show the extent of the problem, even as poll officials tried to blame the malfunction on late May’s extreme heat. But none of the excuses about lack of preparation time for officials and the tropical heat causing glitches will hold good when the general election is less than a year away. The VVPATs’ failure rate exceeding 20 per cent is a symptom of the disease, that is technical in nature and can be tackled.
The larger issue is about democracy. People believe in this in India, and that faith shouldn’t be eroded by the weakness of officials appointed to the EC. There were times when malpractices were the norm rather than the exception, but a strong EC ended all this when CECs like T.N. Seshan and J.M. Lyndgoh headed what is the most important sentinel of democracy, entrusted with the conduct of free and fair elections. The EC can’t run credibility tests like challenging political parties to hackathons to prove the infallibility of our EVMs, which is a standalone model that has a lot to commend itself for. Cries for switching back to paper ballots are being heard not just because of the infirmities being shown by these machines. It’s really a matter of credibility, and only a robust and impartial EC can restore it.
