TDP opposes use of EVMs in municipal polls

The main opposition Telugu Desam party has stepped up its opposition to the use of Electronic Voting Machines saying they were vulnerable to the manipulation and the people did not have confidence in the machines after the non governmental organizations exposed their unreliability.

As the government is all set to issue the notification for the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation polls in a week's time, the TDP on Thursday urged the state election commission to reintroduce the ballot box system in the coming elections.

While a delegation of TDP legislators led by Dr N Janardhan Reddy met the election commission AVS Reddy, the party president N Chandrababu Naidu also wrote a letter pointing out that most of the countries were not using the EVMs.

"All over the world instances galore, where electronic voting is either banned or viewed with great suspicion and antipathy. Of late, the German Supreme Court has clearly banned their usage as unconstitutional and Netherlands has also taken the same decision", Naidu said in his letter. "At the national level leaders all political parties including Sri Ghulam Nabi Azad have expressed their doubts about reliability of machines in registering the votes accurately", he said. The TDP intensified its demand on a day when a leading non governmental organization Janachaitanya Vedika demonstrated before the media that the software of the EVMs was vulnerable to manipulation. The NGO has also moved the High Court seeking discontinuation of  the usage of the EVMs.

Though the TDP has not questioned the result of the recent Lok Sabha and state assembly in which EVMs were used, it has been raising the issue from various forums demanding an end to the use of EVM. Naidu also referred to the demonstration by the former IAS office Omesh Saigal of how the EVMs can be tampered with and get crooked results.

The cannons of law require that all essential steps in the elections are subject to the public examination. However the software of EVMs has never been checked by the EC since their introduction 6-7 years back. As Saigal rightly pointed out, the EC has simply relied on certificates given by the manufacturers like ECIL who actually sub-contracted this work to private parties, who have given the certificates. At the minimum level there must be public software audit of these machines on continuous and regular basis", he said.

Naidu also pointed out that after demonstrating the vulnerability of EVMs, a leading NGO Janachaitanya Vedika had filed public interest litigation in the High Court seeking discontinuation of the use of EVMs. "In view of all these doubts there is an indelible impression in public mind that EVMs can not be relied upon to exercise franchise. In a democracy it is necessary that voter has to get the confidence and the system of franchise should not lose its credibility"

Naidu demanded that the usage of EVMs should be temporarily suspended till all the doubts about their genuinely are cleared and public become confident about their efficacy.