'EC will reply to AIADMK doubts on EVMs'

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, FEB. 21. While claiming that the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) will make rigging almost impossible, the State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Mr. Mrutunjay Sarangi, today said the Election Commission (EC) will reply to the AIADMK leader, Ms. Jayalalitha's doubts over the use of EVMs in the coming Assembly elections.

The EC will also ``reply to the court'' on the petition filed by Ms. Jayalalitha seeking to restrain the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) from using the EVMs in the ensuing Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, Mr. Sarangi said, adding, her earlier letter in this regard had already been sent to the CEC.

Speaking to the media after a live demonstration of the EVMs in a mock-poll here, Mr. Sarangi said the presiding or the polling officer in the booth ``cannot do any mischief'' in any electronic voting, as the polling agents of various political parties ``must ensure'' that after the polling was completed, the `close' button was pressed in the control unit and sealed. That will ensure that no further votes were cast after the polling.

Stating that the EC had successfully used the EVM in States like Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, Mr. Sarangi, along with Mr. T. Kanickaraj, the Deputy Manager of the public sector BEL, which makes these machines, said the EVMs were ``tamper proof'', as the source code in the chip is known only to one person in the factory.

It was a one-time programme which was sent to the States concerned after it was assembled and sealed. The chip could be used one time only though it would store the results of any particular poll for years, Mr. Kanickaraj explained.

Dispelling impressions that a polling agent could ``collude'' with the polling officer at the control unit to cast bogus votes, Mr. Kanickaraj said nobody could vote twice. ``If you press two buttons in the balloting machine at the same time, it will not register,'' he said, showing that operation to the media. Asserting that the ``pre-programmed chip cannot be tampered with'', the BEL Official said the secrecy of the voter's intent was also maintained.

Mr. Sarangi said the EVMs had all the safety features of the ballot box and the procedure for casting the vote was also the same beginning with identifying the voter in the electoral rolls. Only, the polling officer's permission by pressing a button in the `control unit' was equivalent to giving a ballot paper, he said.

Even as the EVMs were battery-operated, Mr. Sarangi said if in any constituency the number of candidates exceeded 64, the maximum the `control unit' has been designed to take, they will switch over to the ballot box and manual polling. For the Tiruchi Lok Sabha by-poll, there will be separate units for the Assembly and Parliamentary elections, he said.

The training in the use of EVMs was at four levels, he said. First for the polling personnel from the District Collector onwards to the polling officer. The programme for the Collectors has been scheduled for February 26 at Madurai, 27 at Tiruchi and 28 at Chennai, with each Centre covering 10 Collectors.

While a demonstration was being organised for representatives of all recognised political parties in Chennai on February 28, Mr. Sarangi said there will be also training for the media in all the districts. The fourth type of training will be for the voters with the machines made available in all polling stations in every village, shortly before the polls. There will also be a ``massive publicity campaign'' on the use of EVMs.

The 100 per cent verification in the 42 Assembly constituencies ordered had been completed by Wednesday. Those who had not responded to the notices with proof of residence, will be deleted from the voters' list, Mr. Sarangi said, adding, the draft supplementary rolls for those constituencies will be published in a week to 10 days.

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Section  : Southern States
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