CEC Sunil Arora slams political parties for raising questions on EVMs

"We have made EVMs a football," said Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora on Tuesday while expressing disappointment over political parties raising questions on the use of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM). Speaking at length at a press conference here over political parties' dissatisfaction after losing polls, he said that EVMs are appreciated if the result is in their favour and if not, the same political parties raise questions over the usage of the voting machines.

“We have been using EVMs for more than two decades. It is very strange, even if you take from 2014 onwards, there was a Lok Sabha poll in Delhi, there was X result and some political entity won. Then in Delhi Assembly polls, another political entity won with heavy margin,” he said while addressing a press conference here.

He added, “After that, there were many polls -- Karnataka, five states, everywhere results were different. Sorry to say we have made EVMs a football; if the result is X, EVM is good and if the result is Y, EVM is not good, as if EVM is voting. It is you and I who are voting, so no point in going over this again. The entire manufacturing process of EVMs is supervised by highly respected technocrats.”

On the question of conducting elections in Jammu and Kashmir, he said, “The administration of the districts where infiltration is more, they were of the opinion that they can hold the elections. There is a healthy sign for conducting elections in the state.” According to the Chief Election Commission, VVPATS will also be used at all polling booths along with EVM for the first time in the forthcoming elections. CEO had already been directed that VVPAT awareness campaign should be conducted well.

“Almost all political parties voiced the need that both Parliament and Assembly elections should be conducted at the earliest and together in the state. Recent turnout in Panchayat polls and Municipal polls state that these elections were very peacefully conducted. The state wishes to have a democratically elected government in place,” Arora said while elaborating on the demands of political parties. “Political parties suggested that polling should be conducted after the month of May since Amaranth Yatra, etc are also due in between,” he added.

On the question of simultaneous polls of Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in the state, he further said, “the Commission had discussions with the state Chief Secretary, DGP, Union Home Secretary and all political parties. We will consider everything and inform about the decision at a press conference in Delhi.” A team of Election Commission of India concluded its two-day visit to the state on Tuesday to review the poll preparedness in the run-up to the upcoming General elections.

(With inputs from agencies.)