Congress opposes remote voting for migrant workers, calls for restoring trust in electoral system

The Congress on Thursday came out against the Election Commissions proposal for a remote voting system for migrant workers, and said it should first allay the Oppositions apprehension about misuse of EVMs before extending its application which would seriously undermine trust in the electoral system.Citing some alleged irregularities in voting in the recent Gujarat assembly elections, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, Now imagine if these suspicious patterns can be extended via a multi-constituency voting machine to other locations.

The Congress on Thursday came out against the Election Commission's proposal for a remote voting system for migrant workers, and said it should first allay the Opposition's apprehension about misuse of EVMs before extending its application which ''would seriously undermine trust'' in the electoral system.

Citing some alleged irregularities in voting in the recent Gujarat assembly elections, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, ''Now imagine if these suspicious patterns can be extended via a multi-constituency voting machine to other locations. This would seriously undermine trust in the system.'' ''We call on the Election Commission to restore trust in the electoral system with transparency and via honest engagement with the Opposition's concerns,'' he said in a statement.

In a major move to increase voter participation, the Election Commission on Thursday said it has developed a prototype multi-constituency remote electronic voting machine for domestic migrant voters and has invited political parties for a demonstration on January 16.

It has also asked parties to make their written submissions by January 31, 2023.

In the statement, Ramesh said, ''Trust in the electoral system is paramount for democracy to function. The German Federal Constitutional Court struck down Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in Germany in 2009 because the opacity of the machine cannot give a voter the confidence that his or her vote is being correctly recorded.

''In spite of their widespread use, EVMs have aroused much controversy in India. Unfortunately, fears of their misuse have not been systematically addressed. Voters and parties must have confidence in the electoral system. However, this trust has been repeatedly violated in recent years on account of pressures being put on the Election Commission of India by the Modi government,'' he said.

He alleged that the Election Commission delayed the announcement of the election schedule in Gujarat to give Prime Minister Narendra Modi more time for electioneering in his home state.

It also gave him yet another free pass to violate the model code of conduct by allowing a road show on voting day in Gujarat, Ramesh alleged.

''On issue after issue our representations to the Election Commission result in no action. In Gujarat this time we also saw suspicious voting numbers which showed that 10-12 per cent of voters cast their votes in the last hour of voting. This translates into an impossible 25-30 seconds being taken to cast each vote. You need a minimum of 60 seconds to cast a vote,'' he said.

The Congress party, he said, has made constructive suggestions in the past to increase confidence in the voting process by expanding the number of booths in which Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips are counted. He, however, said this has also not been accepted.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)