CHENNAI: A public interest litigation petition has been filed in the Madras High Court seeking orders to the Election Commission of India to count 100% of the voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) attached to the electronic voting machines to ensure transparency in the upcoming general elections to the Lok Sabha. The petitioner, C Packiaraj of Chennai, stated that the PIL was filed to uphold free and fair polls and full transparency of the election process.
Listing out the excess votes recorded in EVMs in certain constituencies, the petitioner said it was evident that 63.31% of the electronic machines in 342 constituencies do not record votes in an error-free manner.
He noted that even a small variance in the percentage of votes polled can alter the outcome of the election as to deciding the party securing a majority to form the government.
Saying that his representation submitted to the ECI was not acted upon, the petitioner expressed suspicion that inaction shows malafide intention and said it is obligatory on the ECI to remove reasonable apprehension of voters regarding the polling method and counting process.
When the petition came up before on Tuesday, the counsel for ECI informed that a similar petition was pending in the Supreme Court. Directing ECI to submit the details, the matter was posted to January 19.