NEW DELHI, Apr 18
Kerala’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Thursday said that any apprehensions of electronic voting machines (EVMs) giving extra votes to the BJP candidate during a mock poll in the Kasaragod Lok Sabha seat were baseless.
The mock poll was held in Kasaragod on Wednesday as part of the commissioning of EVMs ahead of the Lok Sabha election set to be held in Kerala on April 26. After an initial examination of the EVMs, they were brought in for the mock poll – an exercise that takes place in front of the candidates or agents assigned by them.
It was when the machines were turned on for the mock poll that additional VVPAT (voter-verified paper audit trail) slips with the BJP party symbol reportedly came out. CEO Sanjay Kaul cited the report from Kasaragod District Collector Imbasekar K, saying that the message “not to be counted” was written on these VVPAT slips, which were also longer than other VVPAT slips. He said that the slips also had “standardisation done” written on it.
All of this makes it evident that these slips – one each came out from four EVMs – were preliminary examination slips meant to ensure the machines worked as per standards, the officer said.
He maintained that all voting machines being used in Lok Sabha elections in the state are “completely safe and error-free”, and that there is no need for any apprehensions. The CPI(M) and Congress candidates from Kasaragod, M V Balakrishnan and Rajmohan Unnithan respectively, had on Wednesday complained to the district collector, who is also the Returning Officer for the Kasaragod seat, that BJP candidate M L Ashwin got more votes during the mock poll.
Following the complaints, a report was sought from the collector regarding this matter. On Thursday, the Supreme Court, which was hearing petitions seeking 100 per cent verification of EVM votes with their VVPAT slips, also asked the Election Commission to look into the issue.
Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) engineers, who were setting up the EVMs, explained to the collector that some machines were taken for commissioning before the printing of standardisation slips were complete, and that this was why when the EVMs were turned on for commissioning, the remaining slips came out. The collector said the process was on video and that issue was adequately explained to the political parties.
