BENGALURU: At a time when there is much debate over electronic voting machines (EVMs), former Chief Election Commissioner S Y Qureshi defended its use. There is no scope for tampering of these machine as its authenticity is checked by an independent team of IIT experts, he said.
Answering a question at a symposium in the city, Qureshi said that every political party questions the authenticity of EVMs if their candidates are defeated but they don’t say anything if their candidates win. “For instance, they (Congress) raised doubts over EVMs when another party won the elections in Uttar Pradesh, but they kept quiet as they won the by-elections last week. The only flaw I found is that the ECI (Election Commission of India) is checking only one EVM in a constituency. It should check 2 to 3 per cent of the total EVMs used,” he said.
Observing that there must be strict vigil while shifting EVMs from the factory to the polling stations, he said that though the EVM chips are manufactured in Japan or the US, these are checked by an independent team of IIT professors. There is, however, concern over money power, urban apathy and paid news as far as electoral reforms are concerned, he said. Also, the educated people who criticise the political leaders never vote. He added that corruption during elections is the root cause of all corruption in the country.
‘ECI appointments defective’
Qureshi said that though the ECI is the most powerful commission in the world, it has the most defective system of appointment and added that he is one of the beneficiaries of this flaw.
“We have a collegium for appointment of judges. But appointments to the ECI are made by the government. Though the issue has been raised for the last few decades, the process still remains the same. The ECI has powers to register political parties, but it cannot deregister parties even if it is a bogus one,” he said.
Favouring the ‘totaliser’ which is being debated now, Qureshi said that it is nothing but mixing of ballots physically so that voting papers of a particular village cannot be identified. This is for good reason, he said.