The Election Commission (EC) has said that it would provide a \u201csatisfactory solution\u201d to concerns of political parties about the electronic voting machines (EVMs).<\/p>\n
Many opposition parties led by the Congress had demanded return to the ballot paper system at an all-party meeting convened by the EC.<\/p>\n
Briefing journalists after the meeting with political parties, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) OP Rawat said, \u201cWe will definitely look into all the suggestions given by them and there will be a satisfactory solution to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Seven recognised national parties and 51 recognised state political parties were invited for the meeting. Out of the total 58 parties, 41 attended it.<\/p>\n
In the meeting, several opposition parties raised the issues of EVM tampering and technical glitches in the voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) system.<\/p>\n
Though EVM tampering and VVPAT glitches were not on the agenda, representatives of the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Samajwadi Party, Aam Aadmi Party, Trinamool Congress, Janata Dal (S), BJP\u2019s estranged ally Shiv Sena, Communist Party of India, CPI-M and Forward Bloc raised the issue. Many of them also suggested going back to the ballot paper system, representatives of parties and EC officials present in the meeting said.<\/p>\n
Some parties also suggested that the number of constituencies where results of EVM and paper audit trail device are matched be increased to enhance the confidence of voters and parties in the reliability of the voting mode.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing final has been decided yet, but one way to allay fears is to increase the number of constituencies where EVM and paper trail machine results are matched,\u201d a senior EC functionary said after the meeting.<\/p>\n
VVPATs are used in all polling stations. But as of now, results of EVMs and VVPATs are matched in one polling station per constituency.<\/p>\n
Senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said the demand was made since there were doubts on the credibility of EVMs. He said the Congress’ stand was given in writing to the Election Commission (EC) many weeks ago and it was reiterated on Monday for the second time.<\/p>\n
Singhvi said if the EC does not agree to revert to paper ballot, then it should adhere to the suggestion that in at least 30 per cent of the polling booths there should be paper trail of EVMs to check the authenticity of votes cast.<\/p>\n
Responding to repeated questions on EVMs, Rawat said the EC takes a comprehensive view. \u201cSome of the parties said going back to ballot is really bad as it will bring back booth capturing\u2026we don\u2019t want (that). At the same time, some parties said there are problems with EVMs, there are issues with VVPAT slip count so why not EC takes a call on this,\u201d Rawat said.<\/p>\n
Asked about the stand of the EC on EVMs and whether it remains the \u201csame\u201d as it was in the past, the CEC dubbed it as a \u201chypothetical question\u201d.<\/p>\n
In June last year, when the EC had invited parties to prove that the EVMs can be hacked, only two parties accepted the challenge but they too opted out of the event. As many as 13 parties had last year questioned the reliability of the EVMs.<\/p>\n
Then Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi had maintained that the EVMs used by the EC were \u201cnon-tamperable\u201d and with 100 per cent use of paper trail machines in all future elections the issue of tamperability of the machines \u201cstands closed\u201d.<\/p>\n
The \u201cfailure rate\u201d of EVMs in most elections has been 0.7 per cent, said a report in The Indian Express (IE).<\/p>\n
EVMs were first used in election in India in May, 1982 in a Kerala byoll. But since there was no law prescribing its use, the Supreme Court struck down the election. The Representation of the People Act was amended in 1989 to allow use of EVMs. But a general consensus on its use was evolved only in 1998.<\/p>\n
Over 11 per cent of the 10,300 VVPAT machines across 10 states had developed faults and had to be replaced during the bypolls on May 28 this year.<\/p>\n
Cap on poll expenditure of parties \u2013 BJP lone opponent<\/strong><\/p>\n The BJP was the only party that opposed a ceiling on election expenditure of political parties.<\/p>\n BJP general secretary Bhupendra Yadav, who, along with Union Minister JP Nadda, represented the ruling party at the meeting, told The Indian Express that since all political parties have to declare their expenditure in their income tax filings, \u201cusmein kisi prakaar ki capping nahi lagai jaani chahiye (there should be no cap on that)\u201d.<\/p>\n Yadav said elections should be based on issues, and not on caste lines or \u201cmuscle power\u201d or \u201ccriminal power\u201d. The parties, he said, \u201cshould not be restricted\u201d, rather \u201cusmein zyaada se zyaada prachaar karne ka avsar aur suvidha deni chahiye (parties should be given more opportunities and facilities to advertise)\u201d. He said there should be transparency in \u201ccrowd-funding\u201d. In a statement, the BJP said \u201cECI may moot for better transparency than limit the expenses\u201d.<\/p>\n The Congress made a strong pitch for a ceiling on party\u2019s expenditure and offered a formula: multiply the limit of an individual candidate\u2019s ceiling with the number of candidates a party fields. It also suggested a ceiling on advertisements across all platforms.<\/p>\n Currently, there is a limit on poll expenses by a candidate in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies but there is no limit on the expenses made by a political party during elections.<\/p>\n \u201cUnregulated party expenditure is a dangerous proposition… There should be a ceiling on the expenditure by political parties,\u201d Singhvi said.<\/p>\n AAP\u2019s Raghav Chadha said that funding of polls, \u201chow one political party has unlimited amount of resources, how that should be looked into,\u201d was part of the party presentation. He said the issue of an overall limit on party expenditure was raised by a \u201clot of political parties\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cYou cannot have that X candidate is spending only 5 lakh rupees but the BJP or Congress or whichever party is spending 500 crore in that constituency,\u201d Chadha said, adding that the \u201centire election process gets vitiated, and there\u2019s no level-playing field\u201d.<\/p>\n The AAP leader also said \u201cforeign companies through electoral bonds can fund political parties, that has serious national security implications\u201d. The same issue was also mentioned by CPM\u2019s Nilotpal Basu.<\/p>\n The Congress also raised the issue of electoral bonds, terming it \u201csimply a legal channel for companies to round-trip their tax-haven cash to a political party\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe electoral bonds are yet another fraud (committed) on the nation… This is not a new stand. You are in fact legitimising anonymity; you are in fact legitimising large sums of money without even the scrutiny which happens today.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou are actually making it much worse… You are in fact legitimising humongous amounts of donation without revealing the name of the donor,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Publishing election-related matter 48 hours before polling<\/strong><\/p>\n The Congress, along with some other parties, also supported inclusion of the print media in Section 126(1)(b) of the Representation of the People Act, barring publication of election matter within 48 hours ending with the hour fixed for the conclusion of polling.<\/p>\n However, the BJP \u2014 in its written response to an EC questionnaire \u2014 said the print media, State as well as national newspapers, should be exempted from silent period proclamations.<\/p>\n Fake voters<\/strong><\/p>\n The party said the single biggest challenge before the EC was to check \u201cfake and duplicate voters\u201d on the electoral rolls, claiming that in Madhya Pradesh, 60 lakh were suspect duplicate\/fake entries and in Rajasthan, it was about 45 lakh. Both states go to polls later this year.<\/p>\n The opposition party further demanded weeding out of all duplicate and false voters from the voters list to ensure a free and fair election.<\/p>\n The Congress said this is a national issue affecting all political parties and therefore strict compliance is necessary.<\/p>\n The party has said that a comprehensive verification of voters must be carried out, preferably door-to-door, before the 2019 general elections as well an action plan to deal with the same must be prepared by the EC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Election Commission (EC) has said that it would provide a \u201csatisfactory solution\u201d to concerns of political parties about the electronic voting machines (EVMs). Many opposition parties led by the Congress had demanded return to the ballot paper system at an all-party meeting convened by the EC. Briefing journalists after the meeting with political parties, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":48846,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[4],"tags":[58,86,1028,16491],"yst_prominent_words":[55389,4308,3813,31688,44933,37014,55392,34172,55391,55393,4314,54799,4095,4023,4102,4315,18464,35633,55390,55388],"ppma_author":[140543],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/d2r2ijn7njrktv.cloudfront.net\/apnlive\/uploads\/2018\/08\/28181538\/EC-holds-all-party-meet-Opposition-wants-ballot-papers-cap-on-poll-expense-but-BJP-doesn%E2%80%99t.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":140543,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"apnnewsdesk","display_name":"APN Live","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/478eacb893eda88aa6ed8d99b005bf58?s=96&r=g"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48842"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48842"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=48842"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=48842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}