Hyderabad: Congress candidate in the Khairatabad Assembly Constituency Dr Dasoju Shravan today wrote a letter to the Returning Officer seeking counting of the printed slips of VVPATs to nullify the potential errors in EVMs automated counting of votes as he has doubts of EVM tampering resulting in skewed results in the elections. He said his earlier request was rejected and no attempt was made to validate the votes secured in EVMs and printed slips of VVPATs, which is a glaring case of violation of principles of natural justice and free and fair conduct of elections.
“As a contesting candidate, it is my right to know how many votes I secured and if suspicion is expressed about the EVMs functioning, it is the bounden duty and responsibility of the Election Commission and Returning Officer to cross verify and validate the votes secured by counting the printed slips of VVPATs and clarify as required. There is a serious mismatch between the votes secured in EVMs and printed clips of VVPATs and it clearly reflected during the process of counting. It was noted that under first round at table no 7, when VVPAT printed slips are counted, there was a discrepancy and variance in terms of secured votes through EVM and printed slips of VVPATs. However, it is astonishing that the repeated requests made by our counting agents to count the printed slips of entire 238 VVPATs was disregarded and denied”.
Shravan said, “the Supreme Court in 2013 had held that “the paper trail is an indispensable requirement of free and fair elections. The confidence of voters in the EVMs can be achieved only with the introduction of the “Paper Trail”. EVMs with VVPATs system ensure the accuracy of the voting system with an intent to have fullest transparency in the system and to restore the confidence of the voters; it is necessary to set up EVMs with VVPAT system because vote is nothing but an act of expression which has immense importance in democratic system.
“Para 25 of the judgment Subramanian Swamy Vs. Election Commission reported in 2013, 10 SCC 500: “It was also stated that as per the Rules, the paper slips of VVPAT shall not be counted normally except in case the Returning Officer decides to count them on an application submitted by any of the candidates. However, since VVPAT system was being used for the first time in any election, the ECI decided on its own to count paper slips of VVPAT in respect of all polling stations. It is the bounden duty of the Election Commission to count the paper slips of VVPAT in respect of all polling stations as the same are introduced for the first time apart from the applications made by me”, he added.
[source_without_link]NSS[/source_without_link]