Congress urges EC to restore faith in election process

Imposing allegations on the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) used during the election process, the Congress Party on Tuesday said that the Election Commission needs to restore people's faith in the poll process, adding that the credibility has to be retained.

"I think it's a very serious matter because even the demonstration which was given by the Election Commission in Madhya Pradesh, it was noticed that whichever button you pressed the vote goes to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Only the Election Commission can restore the faith of the people in the EVMs and the democratic voting process," Congress leader K.T.S. Tulsi told ANI.

Meanwhile, another Congress leader P.C. Chacko said it is a matter of credibility as the people have lost their faith in the EVMs.

"In India we have been experimenting EVMs in the past, but never before such complaints in a large scale have come. Now after the Uttar Pradesh elections there is a sufficient ground for the people to believe that there has something wrong happened and therefore people have lost their faith in the EVMs," he added.

He further said that people now think that these machines can be manipulated.

"It is up to the Election Commission to prove and say to the people that these machines are above tampering, if it could not then the whole election process will be farced," Chacko asserted.

The Congress Party yesterday emphasized on using ballot paper scrutiny instead of using electronic system while stating that they have faith in the Election Commission of India, but not on the EVMs.

"We have all referred to the global best practices where overwhelming majority of democracies in the world are not using electronic voting system. The country from where the chip is coming, Japan is itself not using the EVMs. There were only eight countries in Europe which opted for electronic machines and six have fallen back including Germany where the Supreme Court has come out with the strong indictment," Congress leader Anand Sharma said.

Accusing the Central Government of tampering with the EVMs, Sharma said this government has refused to give the money for verifiable paper trail that raises a fundamental question about the intent of the BJP government.

Resonating similar views, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Majeed Memom said all leaders of the opposition party leaders are unanimously addressing the commission with regard to the lack of faith in EVM functioning.

In the meeting with Election Commission, a team of top opposition leaders yesterday put forward their demand before the poll panel of using ballot papers instead of EVMs in the upcoming elections in view of the alleged tampering.