Rights activist Ajay Dubey while questioning the malfunctioning of the electronic voting machines (EVMs) has demanded that they should not be used in future elections in the State.
Dubey, in a letter to State Election Commissioner (SEC) R Parsuram, on Wednesday questioned why the latest model EVMs that were purchased by spending crores of rupees started malfunctioning and requested that these EVMs should not be used in the ensuing municipal corporation elections in Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur, Chhindwara and other civic bodies.
Besides, the rights activist, who is also a director of Transparency International, demanded to make public the enquiry report and action taken by the SEC in cases of EVM malfunctioning during the recently held civic body’s elections.
The making of enquiry report public would maintain the trust of the people of the State in democracy and would also save them from any further betrayal, he added. He said, “We want that the media friendly SEC should adopt transparency, sensitivity in his working.”
He said that question over trustworthiness of the EVMs has been raised only after the Collectors of two districts of Gwalior and Dewas exposed the EVM irregularities and questioned the credibility of the EVMs. This issue should be taken seriously so that the people of State could be saved from any further betrayal, he added.
He said, “Both the Collectors reported large-scale malfunctioning in the EVMs but the SEC failed to take any legal action till now. Repolling was also carried out at over two dozen places due to the malfunctioning of the EVMs. Hence we demand that action should be taken against the irregularities reported during the November 2014 civic body’s elections and the enquiry report besides the action taken over them should be made public and the future elections in the State should not be conducted by those EVMs.”