Bindo Lanong in Shillong on Monday. Picture by UB Photos

Shillong, Aug. 5: Who said chickens are not to be counted before they are hatched?

Certainly not the Opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) in Meghalaya! According to the regional party, some Congress candidates in the February 2013 Assembly elections went gung-ho to “celebrate” their “victory” even before votes were counted.

And what was the reason behind this? The “gullible” electronic voting machines, of course, according to UDP working president Bindo M. Lanong here this evening.

In the polls, the ruling Congress managed to win 29 of the 60 seats while the UDP had to be content with only eight seats.

Lanong, who was serving as deputy chief minister in the then Meghalaya United Alliance (MUA) government, lost to incumbent urban affairs minister M. Ampareen Lyngdoh from East Shillong constituency by a huge margin.

“According to our information, at least 16 to 17 constituencies were identified during the last elections to carry out hacking of voting machines,” Lanong alleged, adding that East Shillong was one of them.

He said even Congress leaders were surprised that the party could win in 29 constituencies in spite of intra-party feud.

His remarks come against the backdrop of reports that the government would utilise the voting machines in next year’s elections to the state’s three autonomous district councils.

Lanong stated that the Election Commission does not have any knowledge about the “selective hacking” of voting machines.

“In June this year, we wrote to the commission where we explained about hacking of the voting machines. We are, however, yet to receive any reply from the commission,” he added.

Through the letter, the UDP had demanded an inquiry into the “nexus”, which was supposedly behind the “selective hacking”.

“These voting machines are unreliable. They are gullible to fixing and hacking,” Lanong asserted.

Reiterating the party’s plea to the government to stop using voting machines and revert to ballot papers for next year’s district council polls, Lanong, however, was non-committal when asked whether the UDP would boycott the polls if the “gullible” machines were not replaced by paper ballots.

District council affairs minister H.D.R. Lyngdoh had said that voting machines had already been procured at a cost of around Rs 2 crore and these would come in October.