EC’S insistence on EVMS irks Kejriwal

NEW DELHI: DELHI Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday questioned the Election Commission’s insistence on the use of EVMS and said ‘the whole country wanted that paper ballots should be used in elections’.

“All political parties (barring the BJP) and the people of India want paper ballot. Then why is (the) ECI insisting on EVMS,” tweeted Kejriwal.

The Chief Minister’s reac- tion came after reports that Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh also raised concern about manipulation of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMS).

Kejriwal has been insisting that the commission should come clear on EVM tampering issue. On Monday, he demanded that the upcoming civic polls in Delhi be postponed, if need be, to use paper ballots.

Last week, the AAP national convener had met Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi and urged him to order investigation into cases of “faulty” EVMS and ascertain if their software can be tweaked “in favour of the BJP”.

Responding to the allegation, the EC had said the AAP should introspect on the reasons for its defeat in Punjab Assembly polls instead of blaming Electronic Voting Machines (EVMS).

But, Arvind Kejriwal said that while the Election Commission says that the chips of the EVMS can’t be written on, “but it clearly doesn’t seem to be the case”.