Kejriwal asks EC to release EVMs for probe

KEJRIWAL SAID HIS ‘EXPERTS’ CAN SHOW IN 72 HOURS HOW THE MACHINES COULD BE TAMPERED WITH TO SUIT A POLITICAL PARTY

NEWDELHI: Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal raised doubts on Monday over the BJP’s landslide assembly poll victory in Uttar Pradesh, and asked the Election Commission to release electronic voting machines (EVM) for investigation into allegations of tampering and rigging.

Also, the Aam Aadmi Party chief demanded that the April 23 civic elections in New Delhi be postponed, or the poll panel should go back to the paper ballot.

“We demand the EC to release the EVMs so that it is open to scrutiny; we will investigate. Recent observations are alarming, paper ballot should be considered to replace EVMs,” Kejriwal said.

The commission dismissed the allegations and said its systems were tamperproof. It asked the AAP to introspect on its poll performance in Punjab, instead of blaming the EVMs — a comment that Kejriwal and other leaders have bristled against.

Kejriwal’s party came a distant runner-up, bucking projections that it will form the next government in Punjab — the party’s second after New Delhi.

He questioned the reliability of EVMs after the Punjab polls.

The Congress too joined the anti-EVM chorus after a purported video of an EVM tested ahead of by-polls in Madhya Pradesh showed the paper trail attached to it generating a receipt for the BJP.

The state chief electoral officer Saleena Singh had pressed the button for the Samajwadi Party candidate.

A voter-verified paper audit trail or VVPAT allows a voter to know if the machine registered a vote for the candidate selected. The slip is visible for seven seconds before it drops into a box.

Kejriwal’s said his “experts” can show in 72 hours how the machines could be tampered to suit a political party.

The AAP alleged that EVMs for by-polls in Madhya Pradesh were shifted from Uttar Pradesh where assembly poll results were declared on March 11.

“All EVMs sent to Bhind were used in Uttar Pradesh’s Govind Nagar during the assembly elections. How can you allow that? Also, we have heard that VVPAT machines from UP were brought to conduct the Rajouri Garden bypoll,” Kejriwal said.

He alleged that the commission has violated its own rules, as EVMs from an election can’t be reused for 45 days — a period during which a person can petition against the result, which would warrant an examination of the machines.

“People are asking whether they should even bother to vote if the EVMS could be tampered … municipal elections should be held using paper ballots. It should be postponed if time is required to do that,” he said.

The nominations for elections to the three municipal corporations ended on Monday.

The commission said the party has levelled “baseless observations and allegations”.

“VVPAT machines are not required by the law to be retained in a strong room for the purpose of election petition and are available for use. However, in the by-polls only VVPAT machines kept in reserve, and not used during the polls, have been redeployed,” the panel clarified in a statement.

The standby machines go through the same rigorous protocol and kept ready.

“Hence, the VVPATs sent to Bhind had the previous symbols loaded from Uttar Pradesh. This is a standard protocol and there was nothing amiss in this,” the commission said.

The old symbols for contesting candidates are erased only before the next polls.

“It was not done when a demonstration was made on March 31 in Bhind.”

The NAK committee later confirmed security services had found another explosive device at the Vosstaniya Square metro station. This device did not explode and it was immediately “neutralised.”

The metro network in Saint Petersburg announced it was shutting down entirely after evacuating all passengers.

The Moscow metro also tweeted that it was “taking additional security measures” as required by law in such situations. NAK said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies that security was being stepped up at transportation hubs and crowded places across the country.

Saint Petersburg announced three days of mourning in the city while President Vladimir Putin, who was holding a meeting nearby in his official Strelna presidential palace, offered “condolences” to those hurt in the blast and to the loved ones of those killed.

Just hours after the blast, people began laying flowers by the Sennaya Square station.

“I was shocked,” said local resident Alexander Malikov. “I gathered my friends around and we came to put flowers here.”

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini wrote on Twitter she was following developments “together with all EU foreign ministers” gathered for a meeting in Luxembourg. “Our thoughts are with all the people of Russia,” she wrote.

Extremists have targeted Russia’s public transportation systems in the past. lege governing council honorary secretary Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina who had contested against him in the recent Amritsar Lok Sabha bypoll after the seat had fallen vacant following Amarinder’s resignation as MP over the November SYL verdict of the Supreme Court. “Like GNDU’s former vice-chancellor AS Brar, who was accused of various scams during in tenure, Chhina played a pivotal role in setting up Khalsa university,” Aujla said.

Chhina, in a recent statement, had tried to buy peace with the new government. He had said the Khalsa University is currently providing education to more than 300 students and has the capability to run the university successfully. Dubbing Amarinder as a visionary administrator, Chinna had said he would decide on the matter wisely.

Aujla said students and teachers have met him and they are not happy being under a private university. “The students from rural areas are objecting to paying more fees and they also want their college to be affiliated to GNDU and not Khalsa University,” he said.

In his disclosures to the ED, Bhola had said that Damanvir had introduced a Delhi-based smuggler Varinder Raja to the alleged kingpin Gaba.

Damanvir’s properties attached include a 16-marla plot in Kansal, SAS Nagar (Rs 1.2 crore), a flat at Basant Gaon in Basant Vihar, New Delhi, (more than Rs 3 crore) and commercial space valued at Rs 3.2 crore in Jalandhar. A fixed deposit of Rs 31 lakh has also been attached.

Chahal, who owns pharmaceutical companies in Baddi, was booked in May 2013 under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) Act at the Banur police station in Patiala, for his alleged complicity in the racket. Seven luxury cars and assets of seven private firms he owns have been attached.

The ED ordered the attachment under Section 5 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) — failure to prove income for purchase of properties — after a one-year investigation.