'...Yet there is no denying that election results often challenge the exactitude of electronic recording of votes and their computation. In Delhi's 16 constituencies the tally of votes counted was higher than the number of people who had voted. In another 22 constituencies, the votes counted were lower than the turnout figure in each. Delhi's Karol Bagh had an excess of 1,155 votes; Sangam Vihar a shortfall of 864 votes.
'"The used or printed VVPAT slips in any election... shall be retained for one year and shall thereafter be destroyed,” says Rule 94 (b) of the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961. But The Quint has found that the Election Commission of India has already destroyed the printed VVPAT slips used in 2019 Lok Sabha elections. And that too, only four months after the results were announced in May 2019... Remember, when we vote, the VVPAT slip verifies if our vote has gone to the candidate of our choice.
[Yet again, when the BJP loses an election, they question EVMs. If the ruling party, which won the Lok Sabha elections so convincingly, does not trust EVMs, then why should we trust the outcome of that election? After all, the BJP comprehensively controlled all the state machinery before the LS elections of 2019 - so if anybody could tamper with EVMs (or other associated devices like VVPAT), then they could.]
[Once again, the BJP appears to have little faith in EVMs.] 'The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) suspected foul play after it lost all the three seats in the bypolls held in West Bengal. National Secretary and Bengal BJP leader Rahul Sinha said that the state machinery openly helped the ruling Trinamool Congress and that they will report this to the Election Commission. Sinha told IANS, "Though the Election Commission monitors all the elections but the execution of bypolls is being done by the state. TMC can do anything to win the elections." He even raised doubts about the EVMs.
'A video of the ruling BJP candidate from Assandh purportedly making controversial remarks about EVMs emerged on social media on the eve of Haryana Assembly polls, following which the Election Commission issued him a show-cause notice and appointed a special observer to the constituency to take “corrective action”.
'Former Indian Administrative Service officer Kannan Gopinathan, who recently quit the service citing growing disillusionment particularly over the restrictions imposed on Jammu and Kashmir, has now raised serious questions about the electoral process having been compromised with the introduction of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines. VVPATs were inducted into the process to provide an additional buffer against the manipulation of the electoral process by allowing physical tallying of votes.
'The Election Commission and manufacturing companies are reluctant to place detailed information about the working of EVMs and VVPATs beyond what they decide that the citizenry must know... In June, 2019 I had sought detailed information about electronic voting machines (EVMs), voter verified paper trail (VVPAT) units and symbol loading units (SLUs), from Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) and Electronics Corporation of India Ltd (ECIL) by filing identical requests under the RTI Act.
[The interesting thing about this piece is that the BJP alleges EVM tampering. In other words the BJP does not seem to hold the line that EVM tampering is not possible.]
'...The ECI’s responses to a public interest litigation (PIL) petition on EVMs in the Bombay High Court over the past 13 months are perhaps illustrative of its approach to the issue. The PIL filed on March 27, 2018, by Manoranjan Roy, a right to information (RTI) activist in Mumbai, was about the processes involved in the procurement, storage and deployment of EVMs and VVPATs by the ECI and State Election Commissions (SECs).
'RTI queries have revealed, among other things, that the micro-controller used in the current elections is not one-time programmable, as consistently claimed by the Election Commission... Free and fair elections form the bedrock of our constitutionally guaranteed democracy. As vigilant citizens, it is desirable to adopt the stance – “In God we trust, everything else requires evidence”. Given the heightened anxieties over EVMs and VVPATs, it is time to publicise some information I obtained from the ECI and the EVM+VVPAT manufacturers – Bharat Electronics Ltd.
