Lok Sabha Debates
Need To Introduce Ballot Papers During Elections on 5 February, 2019
Sixteenth Loksabha > Ttile: Need to introduce Ballot Papers during Elections *DR. THOKCHOM MEINYA (INNER MANIPUR): Madam, I rise to raise an urgent matter of public importance. …(Interruptions) This is about the Electronic Voting Machine now used in Elections.
There have been instances when a voter presses a particular symbol button; the vote gets registered against a different symbol button. This has led to fights and arguments at booths. However, the EC officials have never been able to satisfactorily explain so far why this has happened. The general perception in the minds of the people is: EVMs can be hacked.
Control Unit display of EVMs can be remotely altered through wireless communications. Voting data can be altered by clipping memory manipulator IC (integrated circuit) to the memory chip where data is stored. Memory chip or motherboard can be replaced before poll or counting. Trojan can be introduced by programming chip or by chip manufacturer during fusing of software.
There can be vote stuffing after poll closure. These are some genuine doubts in the minds of the voters. Replies to these doubts by the ECI as DOUBTS vs EC’s facts are far from truth and not convincing at all.
Till then let us go back to Ballot Papers. This has been the demand of our party and many other political parties. But the ECI made it clear that there was no possibility of going back to Ballot Papers.
I urge upon the Union Government to order a thorough inquiry by a team of experts in the field of Electronic technology to establish the fact and clear the doubts in the minds of the voters. Thank you.