The Electronic Voting Machines and the Voter -Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) used during a demonstration exercise for a Bhind bypolls in Madhya Pradesh were not tampered. The Election Commission on Friday said that the special inquiry team has found no anomaly or tampering in EVM and VVPAT used during demonstration in Ater (Bhind) on March 31.
It said during the demonstration, four buttons of ballot unit BU were pressed: Button no one: ‘Handpump’ symbol, button no 2: ‘lotus’, button no 3: again ‘handpump’ symbol and button no 4: ‘hand’ symbol. “Therefore it is clear that on pressing of various buttons on EVMs during the demonstration, corresponding symbols were displayed,” the comm-
ission said.
The EC said that it is completely false to say that at multiple times slips of lotus were printed on pressing different buttons during the demonstration on March 31, as alleged by some political parties and accuracy of EVMs and VVPAT in question “is beyond doubt.”
The EC said that electoral matters shouldn’t be handled casually as this undermines sanctity of the poll process and the Commission may like to fix responsibility on District Election Officer and Returning Officer concerned for lapses brought out in inquiry report. The Commission may like to prescribe check list for handling each activity relating to EVM/VVPAT which should be mandatorily adhered to by the electoral authorities and the same should be monitored through MIS online by the Commission.
The existing instructions issued from time to time may be compiled in the form of these checklists.
The said revised checklistslaid down by the Election Commission of India regarding handling of various activities on EVMs/VVPATs, must be rigorously followed by the entire electoral machinery from the level of Presiding Officer to the CEO. The Commission may like to reiterate that there should be no room for casualness in handling the electoral matters, least of all, such unwarranted remarks, as the sanctity of electoral process forms the foundation of India’s democracy.
“The lapse related to non-deletion of the pre-loaded data of Govind Nagar Assembly Constituency of Kanpur Nagar from where VVPATs — not EVMs — were received and reloading with the symbols/data of dummy candidate before demonstration as per the laid down protocol of the Commission necessitate appropriate action by the commission,” the EC said.
The inquiry report said that the Commission may prescribe checklist for each activity related to EVM/VVPAT, to be adhered to by electoral authorities.