In a development that seeks to pick holes in the Election Commission's oft-repeated claim that the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) are tamper-proof, a Returning Officer has found, in his inquiry that in an EVM used in a recent Zilla Parishad election in Maharashtra, that whenever a voter pressed the button the symbol of coconut, the lED lamp of the symbol of lotus would flash during the polling process.
In an inquiry report submitted to the Buldhana district collector, the Returning Officer of lonar Tehsil of Buldhana said that an EVM, used for ZP election held at Sultanpur polling station (57/6) on February 16, 2017, malfunctioned in such a way that whenever the voter pressed the button the symbol of coconut, the lED lamp of the symbol of lotus would flash during the polling process.
After examining the EVM machine on at least three occasions, the Returning ordered the sealing of the faulty machine and an EVM kept in reserve was used to carry fresh polling in the affected booth. later, acting on the inquiry report submitted by the lonar-based Returning Officer, the Buldhana district ordered re-polling in the affected booth on February 21, 2017.
The Buldhana district collector has provided this information to activist Anil Galgali in response to a RTI query seeking information about the complaint of the affected Independent candidate Ashatai Arun Zore dated June 20, 2017 and also seeking details of the enquiry report filed by the Election Returning Officer.
According to the information provided by the Buldhana district collector’s office, the malfunctioning of an EVM came to light on February 16, 2017 when the election was underway in the polling station of 57/6 coming under Sultanpur, the candidate no 1, who was allotted the symbol of Coconut, on pressing the button before the said name and symbol of candidate no 1, the lED lamp would glow in favour of Candidate no 4, with symbol of lotus.
After verifying the genuineness of the complaints made once at 10.30 am and later at 1.30 pm, the Election Officer Manikrao Baazad and the booth in-charge Ramnarayan Sawant reported the matter to the Assistant Election Returning Officer, who rushed to the polling booth in question and found that there was substance in the complaint. Subsequently, the Assistant Election Returning Officer asked the local officials to seal the faulty EVM and use another EVM kept in reserve for a fresh polling.
Not satisfied with the use of new EVM, the affected Independent candidate demanded a re-poll. The re-polling for the affected booth was conducted on February 21, 2017.
“I have a strong reason to believe that the EVM machine used in the poll had been tampered with. The EVM Fraud is also highlighted in the report of the Election Returning Officer to the district collector. To avoid such repetition in future the Election Commission should think in terms of other alternatives and a new system to cast votes be devised instead of the EVM,” Gagali said in a statement issued here on Saturday.
The Election Commission has repeatedly stated that the ECI-EVMs and its systems are robust, secure and tamper-proof. The definition of tampering of an EVM as enunciated by EC is as follows: “Tampering means alteration in the software program written either on existing microchips of Control Unit (CU) or introducing malicious software program by inserting new microchips in CU and also making keys - pressed in Ballot Unit (BU) not record faithfully in the Control Unit”.