New Delhi: The government has rejected an Election Commission proposal for the introduction of a machine to prevent disclosure of voting pattern during counting.
Top political parties remained divided on the machine which will enhance secrecy by preventing disclosure of booth-wise results.
A team of ministers — headed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh — decided against the introduction of the machine, called Totaliser. The exact reason for rejecting the proposal was not known immediately.
The five-member team was set up on the direction of the Prime Minister’s Office to recommend to the Union Cabinet whether the machine can be used.
The machine is connected to the control units of EVMs after polling and it gives out an overall result. It does not disclose results booth-wise, thus preventing parties from knowing which area voted against them.
Before EVMs, ballot papers from different booths were ‘hand-mixed’ before the counting to conceal voting pattern.
Major political parties were split on the introduction of the machine. According to the EC, the Congress, the NCP and the BSP “categorically” supported the machines, while the ruling BJP was of the view that booth-wise performance is important for parties in their booth management.
