Urban Mirror Correspondent
New Delhi, July 6: The Lok Gathbandhan Party (LGP) today said that demand for reintroduction of ballot papers in the upcoming parliamentary elections is unjustified as electronic voting machines (EVMs) despite some functional problems have vastly improved the electoral system in the country. The LGP said now with introduction of Voters Verified Audit Trail Machines (VVPATs) and the latest M3 model system appears to have further improved.
The spokesman of the party said here on Monday that instead of setting up people-oriented developmental agenda for the elections around 17 parties including Congress, Samajwadi Party, BSP and others have been irrelevantly making demand for going back to old ballot paper system which was largely marred by fraud and booth capturing. Pointing out that EVMs have over the years vastly improved the electoral process with transparency, the spokesman said that those opposing it have been misleading the people by false assertion that EVMs could be hacked by Bluetooth or Wi-fi. However the spokesman said there have been reports of malfunctioning of large number of machines during the elections and it is binding on the Election Commission to do more to clear the apprehensions of stakeholders about the production, security and allotment of machines. Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
The spokesman said that irrespective of some political parties making hue and cry over use of EVMs, the LGP believed that these machines are still the best bet for efficiently holding the elections. The spokesman said the Election Commission should however ensure the proper functioning of these machines to keep the voting process credible and transparent. The spokesman said while demand for going back to old ballot paper process is illogical and self-defeating exercising, the needle of suspicion being raised regularly over these machines is not in the interest of free and fair electoral process in the country and the commission should take adequate corrective measures, including ensuring these machines to be all weather proof, to remove suspicion from the mind of people. The spokesman said since adverse perception among the people is being created over the honest and transparent functioning of these machines the onus lies on the election commission to make the process even more robust and transparent to restore the confidence of the common man in the system.
The spokesman said even though problem of malfunctioning required to be set right urgently the EVM model cannot cannot be termed as flawed. These machines have saved the election process from decades of looting and stashing of ballot papers into ballot boxes at the polling stations by hooligans and other anti-social elements. The spokesman said the commission’s electoral efficiency should not come at the cost of credibility.
