Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam national president. N. Chandrababu Naidu has stated the fact that he has been fighting against the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) and has been a strong proponent for the use of VVPATs since 2009, unlike senior leaders of the ruling government who have had flipped sides on the subject depending on how much it benefitted them or not.
Recalling a conversation he had previously with the Prime Minister of Singapore, Naidu mentioned how a technologically dependent country like Singapore does not use EVMs in its electoral process and has instead been opting for paper ballots process.
He participated in a consultation on ‘Strengthening Transparency, Accountability and Independence of the Election Commission and the Electoral Process’ held at the India International Centre in New Delhi.
Speaking to the hallowed audience, Naidu restated how he, along with senior leaders of 21 political parties, have been condemning the current electoral process of India for the clear lack of transparency and what can be termed as ethics.
He stated that India is a vibrant country and is one of the largest democracies in the world. To maintain this position, the country needed a fair and transparent system of electing its leaders and representatives. However, he said: “When we oppose the Central Government, we face a lot of problems with the ruling government acting in vendetta. The Supreme Court has rejected the petition put forward by 21 political parties asking for 50 per cent verification of VVPATs to ensure accountability in the electoral process. While we respect the decision of the Supreme Court, we promise to continue our fight to bring transparency in the election process.”
Naidu stated that when they approached the Election Commission, they were told that ceding to their demand of counting of 50 per cent VVPATs will delay the entire results by a period of at least 6 days which they were not prepared to do.
He argued by saying that “VVPATs can be counted on the same number of tables (14) that are being used by EVMs and can be done in the presence of a counting agent and an observation officer to ensure that the counting takes place in a fair and transparent manner.”
He also argued that the counting of polls cast by EVMs first and then a random selection of five VVPATs will throw up a lot of discrepancies in the overall counting and this should be done across all constituencies. Naidu said that irrespective of who wins or loses this election, it is our task to ensure voters full and fair democratic procedure.
