Delhi assembly passes resolution on use of EVMS with VVPAT

The Delhi assembly on Tuesday passed a resolution urging President Pranab Mukherjee and the Election Commission to ensure that EVMs with Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) are used in all future elections.

The resolution also called for tallying of votes polled in 25 per cent randomly-selected booths with the paper trail generated by VVPAT machines.

Speaking during the one-day special session of the assembly, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Tuesday claimed it is possible to hack EVMs in less than 90 seconds.

He dubbed EVM-tampering as a "conspiracy to murder democracy".

Sisodia said the issue of tampering of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) cannot be brushed aside by merely terming it a technical snag.

Urging all political parties to take the issue of EVM-tampering seriously, Sisodia said the election process was the very foundation of democracy and must be protected.

Giving an example of a municipal ward in Chattarpur area where Aam Aadmi Party candidate lost by two votes, Sisodia said there was a difference in the number of polled votes as per the data shared by the Election Commission and the data from the EVM machines.

"How is it possible if there is no issue with the EVMs?"

The Deputy Chief Minister also said that AAP MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj had demonstrated in the house "how EVMs can be hacked in 90 seconds", adding that it is a serious threat to the electoral process.

On criticism that the EVM used for the demonstration was just a model, Sisodia asked the Election Commission to offer machines lying with it and then the AAP will prove how these can be hacked.

--IANS

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