NEW DELHI: In a letter written to Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, the Election Commission of India on Wednesday strongly refuted the party's allegations of tampering of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in the Haryana assembly elections.
Addressing a press conference here after the results of the Haryana assembly elections were announced, Congress general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh said some candidates had noticed that on EVMs that had 99 percent battery charge, the party had lost, while those with a charge of 60-70 percent showed a victory for the Congress.
The party also maintained that it would not accept the results, alleging a “conspiracy” through “manipulation” of EVMs.
In its response, the poll panel in the letter to Kharge said, "Such an unprecedented statement as above in a generic sense, unheard in the rich democratic heritage of the country, is far from a legitimate part of free speech & expression and moves towards an undemocratic rejection of the will of the people expressed in accordance with the Statutory and Regulatory electoral framework, uniformly applied across all elections in the country including Jammu & Kashmir and Haryana."
The poll panel also noted that Kharge and Rahul Gandhi mentioned that the Congress proposed to approach the EC with its complaints. The EC has agreed to meet the opposition party’s delegation to address the issues raised by them.
The Congress lost the Haryana elections, results for which were announced on Tuesday. The party won 37 of the 90 assembly seats, while the BJP won a majority, securing a historic third term in the state with 48 seats.
On the allegations about EVM batteries, sources in the ECI provided an explanation.
They said that alkaline batteries are used in the control unit of the EVMs, and new batteries are inserted on the commissioning of the EVMs for the election in the presence of candidates or their agents, and then the machines are sealed.
“The battery provides a voltage between 7.5 and 8 volts. When the voltage is above 7.4, the battery capacity is displayed as 99 percent. As the battery charge is consumed with the use of the EVM for voting, the charge level is displayed as coming down gradually from 98 percent to 10 percent. The EVM works till the battery has over 5.8 volts. Before reaching 10 percent charge, the control unit starts displaying a low battery warning,” an ECI source said.
The source further explained that the capacity of the battery on the counting day depends upon the mock poll conducted on the control unit, the actual poll and the initial voltage of the battery which can vary between 7.5 to 8 volts.
On the allegations regarding slow display of counting, the poll panel termed it ill-founded. It said that the counting of votes was carried out as per Rule 60 of Conduct of Election Rules at the designated counting centres and by the designated authorities following the Statutory and Regulatory regime.
