Poll panel wants parties to verify EVMs at national meet

The Election Commission has convened a meeting of all recognised and State-level political parties here on May 12 to discuss issues relating to Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT).

As part of the EVM challenge, political parties, scientists and technologists will be invited to verify if the voting machines can be tampered with. The EC will also provide an overview of the processes involved in the functioning of EVMs and also seek the views of parties on the matter.

The Commission’s move comes after several political parties, including the Aam Adami Party and Bahujan Samaj Party, raised questions about the credibility of the EVMs and alleged that they could be tampered with. Besides, a delegation of 16 Opposition parties, which includes the Congress, had called on the EC recently and called for a return to paper ballots in view of doubts raised about EVMs and their performance during the recently-concluded Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Punjab.

In a communication sent on Thursday to the presidents of the seven national parties — the BJP, Congress, BSP, NCP, CPI(M), CPI, TMC — and 48 State parties, the EC has also appended a status paper on EVMs and VVPATs.

The meeting will also cover making bribery in elections a cognizable offence, disqualification on framing of charges for offences of electoral bribery and suggestions for VVPAT recount rules.

The various political parties have been asked to send their written responses by May 7.

Last month, the Union Cabinet had approved the release over ₹ 3,000 crore so that the Commission is able to procure over 1.6 million VVPATs that can be used in every polling station during General Elections 2019.

A VVPAT generates a paper-slip bearing the name and symbol of the candidate voted for along with recording the vote in the control unit of the machine, so that in case of a dispute, the paper slips can be counted to verify the result being shown in the EVM. In VVPATs, a printer is attached to the balloting unit and kept in the voting compartment. The paper slip remains visible on a VVPAT for seven seconds through a transparent window.