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Opposition parties tell EC team to use ballot papers instead of EVMs in coming polls

Hindustan Times, Patna | By
Jan 18, 2019 11:24 AM IST

The full member team of election commission led by CEC today started their two day visit to the state by holding discussions with chief electoral officer, Bihar H R Srinivasa and later with nodal officers of state police

Major political parties in Bihar on Thursday demanded from the chief election commissioner( CEC) Sunil Arora to conduct the next lok sabha polls in a fair manner by giving several suggestions to maintain transparency even as opposition parties RJD and CPI batted strongly to hold the polls through use of ballot papers instead of electronic voting machines ( EVMs).

The full member team of election commission led by CEC today started their two day visit to the state by holding discussions with chief electoral officer, Bihar H R Srinivasa and later with nodal officers of state police. In the afternoon, the team of poll panel met representatives of major political parties namely, ruling  JD(U), BJP and opposition Congress, RJD, CPM and CPI.

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“ We want the next election to be conducted by use of ballot papers as it is more safe and less vulnerable to tampering as like the EVMs, which have now gained a reputation of being unreliable and prone to tampering. In recent assembly polls, there have been reports of how EVMs were found abandoned,” said, RJD’s MLA Bhola Yadav, who represented the party before the CEC.

Yadav said he also apprised the CEC that ballot papers were more practical mode of getting people’s mandate as general electorate in Bihar were still not comfortable with machines and often get confused in choosing buttons. “ In panchayat polls, ballot papers are used and electorate are comfortable with it. The same should be done in lok sabha polls,” he said, adding the other demand before EC put by him was creating booths for scheduled caste/ tribe and backward voters so that they could be safeguarded from intimidation and poll violence.

“ In every constituency, polling booths should be created in tolas( locality) of weaker sections so that they can vote freely and not suffer any intimidation,” he said.

The ruling JD(U) , however, supported the use of EVMs in election by demanding that election commission should ensure installation of VVPAT ( voter verifiable paper audit trail) in all booths. The party also demanded that BLOs ( booth level officers) distributing voters slip distributed to families should give a receiving slip so that it is confirmed the slip had reached the voters. “ Adequate security personnel should be deployed in naxal hit areas for fair conduct of polls in troubled areas,” the party demanded.

 The BJP too demanded that more measures should be taken to ensure that voters slip distributed by BLOs to voters are not misused or used in fake voting. “ It is often seen that any one member of family having received a voter slip uses the document to cast fake votes in the name of absentee members of the family. Such practice should be stopped,” the party said.

The state Congress  leaders, in their interaction with the CEC, demanded that EC should set up atleast five pink booths in each block so that women voters participate in election in big number and also urged the EC to send SMS message to voters mentioning the location and electoral roll number to voters prior to the election day. Anand Madhav, chairman of research committee and manifesto advisory committee, state Congress said the party had urged the EC to set up ramps in polling stations and also put polling stations under CCTC surveillance.

The left parties including CPI and CPM demanded curb on the use of black money in election and also strict adherence to the commission’s directives on use of campaign vehciles. CPI leaders also demanded that election should be conducted through ballot papers instead of EVMs while the CPM urged the commission to check paid news and use of fire power and muscle power by candidates. The left parties were also in support for setting up mobile booths for weaker sections  and restricting the number of voters in each polling station from average 1200 voters to 800 voters.

Later in the evening, the EC team also interacted with officials from income tax, excise, transport, airport and lead banks to discuss the steps to tackle challenges before election like flow of black money, monitoring of expenditure of candidates and misuse of vehicles.

 

 

 

 

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