January 22, 2025

The opposition parties are meeting the Election Commission (EC) today to seek clarity on the counting process with respect to the EVMs and the VVPAT and the matching of votes between the two. They have threatened to approach the Supreme Court if their concerns are not addressed.

The opposition parties are making the most basic of demands regarding EVMs and VVPAT. But isn’t the EC tasked with doing all that they say it should do? The opposition is demanding that:

1. Fool proof security at places where EVMs have been stored.
2. All EVMs must be checked properly to ensure that the seals have not been tampered with.
3. All votes in the EVMs should be tallied with the number of votes actually cast as per the booth list.
4. All VVPAT slips must be tallied against the votes cast in favour of individual candidates in the EVMs.

The opposition parties want the EC to clarify the process of counting and matching the VVPAT slips with the EVMs. Mainly, they want that if even there is even a single mismatch between the two, all VVPATs in that assembly segment must be counted.

These are not unreasonable requests. To ensure that the integrity of the election process is maintained, the EC should do all that is necessary for transparency and to satisfy the opposition parties who think that the elections can be rigged by manipulating the EVMs.

The EC must make public how it is going to address the opposition’s concerns. It should not be a tough thing for it to do. It must, after all, have a plan in place. If the opposition is not satisfied by its process, the EC should adopt their suggestions wherever feasible. After all, the new government must not be seen to have got a sullied mandate.