AGP plea to abolish EVMs

Guwahati, Oct. 3: The Opposition AGP will ask the Chief Election Commissioner to abolition electronic voting machines (EVMs) in the forthcoming general polls slated for early next year.

AGP president Chandra Mohan Patowary will place the demand before the commission in New Delhi where it has convened an all-party meeting tomorrow.

Several political parties across the country had approached the commission to hold an all-party meet to deliberate on the “vulnerability of EVMs that had revolutionised India’s democratic process”.

“Our president left for New Delhi today and he will place before the CEC the demand to abolish the EVMs and re-adopt the traditional method of ballots,” AGP vice-president Apurba Kumar Bhattacharyya told The Telegraph today.

“It has already been proven that EVMs can be tampered with and that no one can assure us of their genuineness and perfectibility,” said Bhattacharyya, and cited the example of the Hyderabad-based researcher who had earlier this year demonstrated the alleged “tamperability” of EVMs on TV.

Bhattacharyya also cited the example of the 2006 Assembly polls in the Dispur Legislative Assembly constituency in Assam.

The Congress had allegedly manipulated the results of the Dispur constituency by “tampering” with two EVMs.

Recently, Gauhati High Court ordered repoll in polling station numbers 196 at Digaru and 164 in Dispur while acting on a complaint by AGP’s Atul Bora who lost to Congress social welfare minister Akon Bora.

“The traditional method of using ballots is the best way to carry forward the democratic process. The CEC must take a decision to abolish the EVMs, particularly when most of the parties are opposing their use,” he said.

The anti-EVM campaign gathered momentum last year when the Congress surpassed all projections to bag 262 seats in the general elections.

“The party president will also appeal to the CEC to ensure that the Congress cannot misuse the administrative set-up of the state in the polls next year,” Bhattacharyya said.