SHILLONG, DEC 22: Political parties in the state today demanded tallying of the votes polled (from the EVMs) and voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) slips in all the 3082 polling stations during counting for the upcoming 2018 Assembly elections considering Meghalaya is a small state having only 60 constituencies.
The demand was made by the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Khun Hynniewtrep National Awakening Movement (KHNAM), United Democratic Party (UDP), and others during a separate meeting held with the Chief Election Commissioner AK Jyoti here on Friday.
This after the Election Commission had maintained that votes polled in the electronic voting machines (EVMs) and VVPAT will be tallied only in one polling station per constituency during the counting.
The Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) will be implemented for first time in the state by the Election Commission in the forthcoming state assembly elections.
The VVPAT or Verifiable Paper Record (VPR) is a method of providing feedback to voters using a ballotless voting system. VVPAT machines are used during election process to verify that the vote polled by a voter goes to the correct candidate/party.
VVPAT is also a mean to detect possible election fraud.
The Election Commission (EC) team led by Jyoti and election commissioners OP Rawat and Sunil Arora arrived in the state’s capital on a two-day visit to poll-bound Meghalaya for reviewing the election preparedness in the state and settle down issues related to EVMs.
“We have demanded that EVMs and VVPAT should be tallied in all polling booths of Meghalaya but they (EC) said this is not possible as they have started the process as per Supreme Court direction that tallying of EVMs and VVPAT will be done in one polling booth of every constituency,” NCP working president Vijay Raj told reporters after the meeting here.
He however said that the party would continue to pursue the matter with the EC in view of the fact that Meghalaya is a small state having only 60 constituencies.
“I think they can do it if they want to and if not it means something is fishy going on,” Raj said.
In line with Raj’s opinion, NCP general secretary S Thapa said, “If they can count in one polling booth why can’t they count in all the polling booths because our number of voters is also very less with only 30,000 voters but they said they are not going to do that.”
Asked, Thapa said, “We strongly suspect something is fishy because if they don’t count (by tallying EVMs and VVPAT slips), what is the use of introducing this VVPAT, it would only mean unnecessarily wasting money on this.”
Making a similar plea, KHNAM state youth wing president Thomas Passah said that they have suggested that the EVMs and VVPAT should be tallied in all the polling stations in view of the apprehension that the EVM machines can be tampered.
“However while maintaining that is not possible, the EC has made it clear that tallying of EVMs and VVPAT will be considered only if there are complaints received against some polling stations,” Passah said.
The UDP leaders who met the chief election commissioner have also supported the demand made by other political parties.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission has assured the political parties that necessary measures have been taken to ensure all EVMs are tampered proof following growing demand to use secret ballot paper in the upcoming elections in Meghalaya.
“We are not in favour of EVMs because they are not full proof and are subjected to tampering and this complaint has not only come from us but it is widely made all over the country,” UDP senior working president Bindo M Lanong said.
The UDP had earlier resolved in its general council meeting held in the city to demand using of secret ballot paper in small states like Meghalaya in the North East region, which was also submitted before the EC today.
Asked, Lanong however said, “We were assured by the EC that all measures will be taken to ensure there are no foul play and hacking of the EVMs and VVPAT. The CEC also assured that all machines will be in the custody of election department and requested us to have faith in these machines to be used in the upcoming elections.”
Whether they are satisfied with the assurances made by the EC, the former deputy chief minister said that this (EVM) is a man-made machine, it is difficult to say as they are no software engineers.
By Our Reporter
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