Following the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) malfunctioning at Bhind of Madhya Pradesh that has left the Election Commission red faced, the Pakur district administration has decided to go for its demonstration for the political parties. The electoral officer would hold one such demo on Monday in which the facility of the Voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines would be explained in the light of littipara bypoll scheduled for April 9.
Civil SDO of Pakur Arvind Kumar lal told The Pioneer that the demonstration has been organised looking at the suspicion in the minds of the political parties. “We have decided to hold demonstration of VVPAT fitted EVMs on Monday. Representatives of all the political parties have been called at 12 noon to see from themselves and be sure,” said the SDO on Sunday.
The constituency which has fallen vacant after the death of Dr Anil Murmu has 10 candidates into the fray. Barring the BJP, parties in Opposition mainly JMM and JVM have raised doubts over the neutrality of the EVMs. The parties have given representations before the CEO of Jharkhand for holding the bypoll through old system of ballot paper.This has prompted the CEO to go for VVPAT-enabled EVMs in the constituency completely. “There are total 272 polling booths in littipara and the Commission has decided to hold polling at all the booths through VVPAT enabled machines,” added the SDO. The mechanism allows a voter to see paper trail of the vote he has casted briefly so that the person can be sure about the candidate he has voted for. After few seconds the paper slip falls into a collection box attached which can also be used for further verification.
Although this system is an advanced form of the existing EVMs but not beyond doubts for a section of political parties. The incident having taken place in Madhya Pradesh on Saturday in which during a similar demonstration the buttons pressed for two different political parties reportedly printed the vote for the BJP itself, has fanned the apprehensions even further.
“Our representatives would be present during the demo. But still we have our doubts . The party would sit on dharna on April 4,” said JMM general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya.