NewDelhi: The Congress in a letter to the Election Commission has once again underlined the need for having paper ballots instead of EVMs for elections in the country.
In its letter on a day when as many as seven national and several regional parties are scheduled to meet the EC to discuss a range of electoral issues, the Congress has written that paper ballots must be brought back for transparent elections in the country. This is a continuation of its long-standing position that faulty EVMs have been sacrificing democracy at the alter of elections.
The Congress, however, is not the only party that has raised questions against EVMs.
Opposition parties like Trinamool Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party, Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S), Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Samajwadi Party, CPI-M, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), DMK, CPI, YSR Congress, Kerala Congress Mani (KCM) and AIUDF too have raised similar concerns. Even NDA ally Shiv Sena has questioned EVMs.
Many of these political parties are expected to once again raise their doubts against EVMs when their representatives meet with EC officials on Monday. The EC, on its part, has said the agenda of the meeting is to discuss measures that could help in further improving accuracy, transparency and inclusiveness” of electoral rolls, measures to encourage enhanced representation of women in political process, issues related to expenditure ceiling for parties, timely submission of annual audited reports and election expenditure reports among other things.
Bureau Report
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