Cong expresses doubts over EVMs, urges poll panel to restore trust in electoral system

The Congress on Thursday came out against the Election Commission's proposal for a remote voting system for migrant workers saying that such voting machines could undermine the voters' trust in the electoral system, which is important in a democracy, writes Amit Agnihotri of ETV Bharat.

New Delhi: Expressing doubts over electronic voting machines (EVMs), the Congress on Thursday said that such voting machines could undermine the voters' trust in the electoral system, which is important in a democracy. In a major move to increase voters' participation, the Election Commission on Thursday said it has developed a prototype multi-constituency remote electronic voting machine for domestic migrant voters and has invited political parties for a demonstration on January 16. It has also asked parties to make their written submissions by January 31, 2023.

"In spite of their widespread use, the EVMs created controversy in India. Unfortunately, fears of their misuse have not been systematically addressed. Voters and parties must have trust in the electoral system. However, this trust has been repeatedly violated in recent years on account of pressures being put on the Election Commission by the Modi government," Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said.

"On issue after issue, our representations to the Election Commission result in no action. In the recent Gujarat assembly polls, we saw suspicious voting numbers, which showed that 10-12 per cent of voters cast their votes in the last hour of voting. This translates into an impossible 25-30 seconds being taken to cast each vote. You need a minimum of 60 seconds to cast a vote," he said.

In a statement, Ramesh said, "Trust in the electoral system is paramount for democracy to function. The German Federal Constitutional Court struck down Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in Germany in 2009 because the opacity of the machine cannot give a voter the confidence that his or her vote is being correctly recorded. The Congress party, he said, has made constructive suggestions in the past to increase confidence in the voting process by expanding the number of booths in which Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips are counted. He, however, said this has also not been accepted.