Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday demanded that the municipal polls be "postponed" by a month or two till arrangements are made to use VVPAT-equipped EVMs.
Kejriwal met the Delhi State Election Commissioner (SEC) and alleged that "redundant" pre-2006 electronic voting machines (EVMs) that were "junked" and can be "hacked even by a child" are going to be used in the 23 April municipal polls.
VVPAT is a machine which dispenses a slip with the symbol of the party for which a person has voted for. The slip drops in a box, but the voter cannot take it home.
The voters see Voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) slip for seven seconds, which would be an acknowledgement receipt for the party they voted for in the election.
Speaking to NDTV, Kejriwal claimed that the code inside the EVMs can be "manipulated" at the source and accused the Election Commission of not taking any steps to restore the "faith of people" on the electoral process.
The generation-1 electronic voting machines (EVMs), brought in for the municipal polls are "foolproof" and the programme used in them "cannot be manipulated", the Delhi State Election Commission said in its response to Kejriwal.
The Commission rejected Kejriwal’s proposal saying there was no provision to postpone the elections. Kejriwal insisted, under the Delhi Municipal Corporation (DMC) Act, the Centre has the power to extend the tenure of the civic bodies by one year.
"When we made the request to the Election Commission for the EVMs we did not specify any particular type of the machine. Also, at that time, there was no issue relating to EVMs”, said SK Srivastava. He added:
According to the Election Commission, the EVM is electronically protected to prevent any tampering or manipulation.
Generation-1 machines are those which were manufactured before 2006; Generation-2 between 2006 and 2013 and machines manufactured post-2013 are termed Generation-3.
A senior official when asked about procurement of VVPAT- equipped machines, said, "There are not enough VVPAT-equipped EVMs."
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