Twenty-one opposition have once again approached the Supreme Court, asking it to review the order on counting of voter slips of only five EVM machines in every assembly segment. The parties have once again demanded that at least 50 per cent of the voter-verifiable paper trail (VVPAT) slips be cross-checked.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who has been at the forefront of this fight, said democracy the review petition has been filed as democracy cannot be left at the mercy of some EVM programmers.
The Election Commission had previously told the court that election results would be delayed by five days if 50 per cent of VVPAT slips in every assembly segment is counted, following which the SC had asked the poll panel to increasing verification from one VVPAT machine to five, so the delay would be marginal.
“Our battle is to strengthen the democratic process. We have filed a review petition in the Supreme Court with a plea that 50% VVPAT slips must be counted and in case of discrepancy in the count of EVM and VVPAT slips, the result for slips should be upheld,” Naidu said at a press conference.
EVM glitches have marred the Lok Sabha election process in the first three phases of voting held till now. While polling in Andhra Pradesh continued till well past midnight on April 11 due to malfunctioning machines, over 300 faulty EVMs had to be replaced in Rampur in UP on Tuesday.
VVPATs are being used for the first time in a Lok Sabha election after they were first used in the Assembly Elections last year.
Naidu said instances of EVMs malfunctioning and selective manipulation of the machines were reported in the polling held on Tuesday in Kerala, Goa and Uttar Pradesh.
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