Days after Supreme Court direction to the poll body for Increase VVPAT Verification from One to Five per Assembly Segment, Opposition parties on Sunday again held a meeting on the issue.
At least 21 Opposition parties after the meeting have now decided to approach the Top Court again now with a demand that at least 50% of paper trails be verified with EVMs.
Earlier on Saturday, days after Phase-I of voting, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu met Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora and raise the issue of EVM malfunctioning that happened during round one of voting.
Speaking in a joint Opposition press conference on Sunday, Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said, ‘Questions were raised after the 1st phase of election, we don’t think EC is paying adequate attention. If you press the button before X Party, the vote goes to Y party. VVPAT displays only for 3 seconds, instead of 7 seconds’.
‘Names of Lakhs of voters are deleted online without physical verification. There is a long list the parties have given to Election Commission‘, Congress Leader added.
He further added, ‘ It has become even more necessary to count at least 50% of the paper trail of VVPAT. Opposition parties will approach the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the EC for counting of at least 50% of the VVPAT slips with the EVMs in every assembly segment’.
Abhishek Singhvi, Congress: Names of Lakhs of voters are deleted online without physical verification. There is a long list the parties have given to EC. It has become even more necessary to count at least 50% of the paper trail of VVPAT. We will demand the same in Supreme Court. pic.twitter.com/8afjSxBqOc
— ANI (@ANI) April 14, 2019
He said the opposition parties will carry out a nationwide campaign on the issue of malfunctioning in EVMs.
Earlier the Top Court had on April 8, The Highest Court directed the Election Commission to increase the number of VVPAT Verification in the assembly segment from one to five. Currently, the poll body verifies one VVPAT in one assembly segment of the Parliamentary Constituency.
The Top Court bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said ‘increasing the VVPAT verification from one EVM per constituency to five is to ensure the greatest degree of accuracy, satisfaction in the election process and not only political parties but the poor should be satisfied.’
The Highest Court further directed that this order should not cause in the delay in the counting of votes.
However, the Court clarified that this order should not be dupped as a result of any deficiency in the existing system wherein the poll panel randomly picks up any EVM to cross-check VVPAT Counts.
VVPATs, attached to EVMS and Control Units enable the voter to see the name of Candidate and Party to who is vote cast to.
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