KEJRIWAL ASKS EC TO RELEASE EVMS FOR PROBE
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.
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