EC defends integrity of EVMs in SC, asserts it can’t be manipulated
The Election Commission of India (ECI) defended the integrity of the electronic voting system, asserting that it was not prone to any external interference or manipulations.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a review petition by 21 opposition parties seeking a direction to the Election Commission to increase VVPAT verification from five to at least 50 per cent of EVMs during the counting of votes in the General Elections.
The review plea was filed by the opposition parties on April 24.
The apex court had earlier too declined the demand for matching of EVM-VVPAT results in 50 per cent cases, saying it will require huge manpower and will not be feasible in view of infrastructural difficulties.
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However, the court directed the Election Commission to increase VVPAT verification from one EVM per constituency to five randomly selected EVMs in the elections.
Directing the EC, Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi had said: “Increasing the VVPAT verification from one EVM per constituency to five was to ensure the greatest degree of accuracy and satisfaction in the electoral process by both the political parties and the voters”.
The Election Commission had last month told the Supreme Court that the present method of counting the VVPAT slips was the most suitable. The poll panel justified the existing system of random counting of the paper trail slips from one polling booth per assembly segment.
Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has written to the EC demanding to verify 50 per cent of the EVMs using the VVPAT slips.
TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu led opposition parties are demanding that 50 per cent EVMs be verified against Voter Verified Paper Trail machines and have suggested the ballot paper system be restored.
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