On April 18, the Supreme Court instructed the Election Commission of India to probe allegations of extra BJP votes being recorded during a mock poll in Kerala. This follows reports of VVPAT discrepancies.
Coimbatore: The Supreme Court intervened on April 18, addressing concerns about potential electoral discrepancies after extra votes were reportedly recorded for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) during a mock poll in Kerala. The incident that drew scrutiny occurred on April 17 at the Kasaragod government college where three Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines each printed an additional slip bearing the BJP’s lotus symbol across two rounds of testing.
The apex court's directive came during the hearing of a petition by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) which, along with other entities, is pushing for an extensive verification of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) data against VVPAT slips. During the proceedings, advocate Prashant Bhushan highlighted a news report about the discrepancy, prompting Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta to instruct the counsel for the Election Commission of India, Maninder Singh, to verify the claims. “Mr. Maninder Singh, please crosscheck it," was the direction from the bench as per Bar and Bench reports.
On the ground, at the Kasaragod government college, the anomaly appeared during the setup phase when three of the ten VVPAT machines registered 'test prints' that erroneously displayed the BJP's emblem. This was coupled with a header stating "not to be counted,” as explained by the chief election agent of the Congress candidate Rajmohan Unnithan, BM Jamal. His observation was corroborated by another election agent, Nasar Cherkalam, who noted that although the issue was persistent during the initial two test rounds, corrections were made in the subsequent round.
VVPATs, linked with EVMs, allow voters to see a temporary display of their cast vote on a paper slip, which is not handed to them but visible through a transparent window for about seven seconds. In a practice aimed at ensuring electoral transparency, the ECI randomly selects five polling stations in each constituency to cross-verify the EVM counts with the VVPAT slips, giving precedence to the paper trail in any electoral disputes regarding vote counts.
The ongoing Supreme Court case, initiated by ADR and others, argues for the fundamental right of voters to have their votes not only cast but verified as accurately counted. The petitioners are voicing concerns about the susceptibility of programmable chips in EVMs and VVPATs to tampering, suggesting either a return to paper ballots or a modification where voters could physically handle and deposit the VVPAT slips for counting. There is also a plea for the ECI to count the VVPAT slips across all constituencies to uphold electoral integrity.
The apex court's directive came during the hearing of a petition by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) which, along with other entities, is pushing for an extensive verification of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) data against VVPAT slips. During the proceedings, advocate Prashant Bhushan highlighted a news report about the discrepancy, prompting Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta to instruct the counsel for the Election Commission of India, Maninder Singh, to verify the claims. “Mr. Maninder Singh, please crosscheck it," was the direction from the bench as per Bar and Bench reports.
On the ground, at the Kasaragod government college, the anomaly appeared during the setup phase when three of the ten VVPAT machines registered 'test prints' that erroneously displayed the BJP's emblem. This was coupled with a header stating "not to be counted,” as explained by the chief election agent of the Congress candidate Rajmohan Unnithan, BM Jamal. His observation was corroborated by another election agent, Nasar Cherkalam, who noted that although the issue was persistent during the initial two test rounds, corrections were made in the subsequent round.
VVPATs, linked with EVMs, allow voters to see a temporary display of their cast vote on a paper slip, which is not handed to them but visible through a transparent window for about seven seconds. In a practice aimed at ensuring electoral transparency, the ECI randomly selects five polling stations in each constituency to cross-verify the EVM counts with the VVPAT slips, giving precedence to the paper trail in any electoral disputes regarding vote counts.
The ongoing Supreme Court case, initiated by ADR and others, argues for the fundamental right of voters to have their votes not only cast but verified as accurately counted. The petitioners are voicing concerns about the susceptibility of programmable chips in EVMs and VVPATs to tampering, suggesting either a return to paper ballots or a modification where voters could physically handle and deposit the VVPAT slips for counting. There is also a plea for the ECI to count the VVPAT slips across all constituencies to uphold electoral integrity.