Petition in SC to allow use of ballot paper instead of EVMs

A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking directions to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to stop the use of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) and use ballot papers instead in any forthcoming elections as the EVMs can be tampered with.

New Delhi: The plea has been filed by Advocate C.R. Jayasukin The advocate contends that EVMs can easily be hacked, complete profile of a voter can be accessed through them, can be used to manage the results, tampered by an election official and even that the software of an EVM can be changed.

"Because the Electronic Voting Machines also do not generate a slip confirm the candidate one voted post pressing the button. In these cases, it is very easy for a criminal or a hacker to manipulate the votes. If the machines would generate such slips, then people could verify if the numbers of votes captured via EVMs was in line with the details on slips received by the voter," read the plea.

He has cited countries including England, Netherlands, France, Germany, who have banned the use of EVMs in view of security concerns. "EVMs can be hacked is a threat that has been presented not only in India but in many other countries, which is why a number of them have banned the voting machines. Electronic Voting Machines(EVM), like all other machines, are prone to errors and malfunctioning. No machine ever made anywhere in the world is infallible," read his plea.

"The petitioner states that personal accounts from some well placed political sources and experts say that there are some "insiders" demanding vast sums (Rs 5 crores for each assembly constituency) to fix election results. Who are these insiders? Unlike in the traditional ballot system where only the election officials were the "insiders", the electronic voting machine regime has spawned a long chain of insiders, all of whom are outside the ambit and control of Election Commission of India," contends the plea.

Pleading to use ballot papers again, the petitioner says that though counting takes a long time, but it is a process which is fully trusted by the people and can be used in all kinds of situations. The petitioner also stated that fake display units can be installed in EVM, contending that in ballot papers it won't be possible and the election process would be more credible.