‘No point in going back to paper ballots’
ELECTION COMMISSION CHIEF DEFENDS USE OF ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINES
The Election Commission has ruled out the possibility of going back to paper ballots in place of electronic voting machines (EVMs).
It added that it is working on a formula that will “minimise errors and maximise confidence” in EVMs.
The commission also says simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and the assemblies are not possible now given legal constraints. It says no political party has demanded going back to ballot papers at an all-party meeting with the Election Commission recently.
“I have been reading in the newspapers. That’s why it must be coming in the media. Some editorials have come, some lead articles have come [about EVMs] that something which has eradicated booth capturing has eradicated the muscle power,” said OP Rawat, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), in an interview at his office at Nirvachan Sadan, the headquarters of the Election Commission of India.
“The EVMs have eradicated that stigma on the our voters that they cannot even vote; that so many votes are invalidated. Even at times [the] victory margin is less than number of invalid votes,” he said.
“So all these issues have been flagged by even media that there is no point going back to [paper ballots]. Why do you want to bring back those days? When people never used to talk about campaigner or anything, now they would talk how many booths did you capture. If you captured 83 and I have captured 150. I am going to win,” Rawat said.
He was replying to a question about the opposition demand to go back to the paper ballot system in view of the apprehensions that the EVMs could be manipulated, an allegation some major opposition parties have levelled.
The parties also demanded an increase in the sample number of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail to physical verify votes.