The Election Commission (EC) will randomly match voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) slips with Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) results of five polling stations in each Assembly segment in a Lok Sabha constituency.
The decision came following the Supreme Court’s directions on a plea by leaders of 21 Opposition parties who wanted voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) to be hiked to 50 per cent of the EVMs per Assembly segment.
According to EC officials, the exercise will not have much bearing on official declaration of results. “Though candidates come to know of the results after the EVM results are counted, the official declaration will be delayed by three to four hours,” EC officials explained. Such checks will, however, help determine whether votes have been recorded accurately.
Following the 13-page court order, the EC will have to count the VVPAT slips of five times as many machines in each constituency, or that of 20,625 EVMs. At present, the poll panel matches VVPAT paper slips of 4,125 EVMs under the “one EVM per Assembly” segment guidelines.
The SC order is a major setback for the Opposition parties as the court has merely increased the quantum of EVM verification using paper trail by 1.99 per cent, that is, out of total 10.35 lakh EVMs.
Reacting to the court’s direction, EC’s spokesperson said, “The ECI shall make all-out efforts to operationalise and implement the directions of the Supreme Court with immediate effect.”
“It takes about an hour for election officers to match VVPAT slips with EVM count in one polling station at present. After votes are cast, the polling station where VVPAT slips are matched with vote machine, the result is decided by a draw of lots in the presence of candidates,” said EC officials. VVPAT slip counting can only begin after EVM votes for the concerned polling station have been tabulated.
VVPAT is a device which dispenses a slip with the symbol of the party for which a person has voted for. The slip appears on a small window for seven seconds and then drops in a box. The voter cannot take it home. VVPATs are used in all polling stations.
The EC had earlier asked the Indian Statistical Institute regarding a reasonable sample size for matching VVPAT slips to verify the EVM results. The institute had said a sample of 479 EVMs would generate 99.99 per cent accuracy.
Meanwhile, the Congress urged the SC to review its decision on matching of VVPAT slips with EVMs, saying it is not satisfied with the random check in five booths in each Assembly segment.
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SC hikes VVPAT slips’ check to five per Assembly segment
Party chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said as a citizen of India he was concerned why Rs 18,000 crore were spent on VVPATs if they were not to be used in elections.
“No, we are not satisfied with counting only five VVPATs. As a citizen, I feel if I am going to pay for Rs 18,000 crore for VVPATs, the democracy enjoins upon every constitutional authority, every Government to ensure that election is free, fair, proper and without an iota of doubt regarding exercise of franchise by every individual,” Surjewala said.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi also did not agree with the demand of 21 Opposition parties that matching of EVM-VVPAT results be done in 50 per cent cases saying it will require huge manpower and will not be feasible in view of infrastructural difficulties.
The Bench interacted with the Deputy Election Commissioner Sudeep Jain who said presently the poll panel matches VVPAT paper slips of 4,125 EVMs. Jain told the court that at present three election officials, one returning officer and one observer, who happens to be a senior civil servant, are deployed to undertake the random checking of VVPAT slips with one EVM and increasing the sample size would require more workforce.
Senior advocate C A Sundaram, appearing for the EC, said it is the constitutional duty of the poll panel to ensure free and fair election in the country and it has put forth the difficulties posed in increasing the sample size in view of the allegations of leaders of different political parties which was only based on their perception.
Senior advocate AM Singhvi, appearing for Opposition leaders, said the delay of 5.2 days, as the EC claims, will occur only if the Commission choose to not increase its present workforce from one person but the delay would be substantially reduced if the workforce is increase by even one person.