After hours of counting votes, Pakistan has nonetheless not formally introduced the outcomes of the final election held on February 8. Pakistan President Arif Alvi held the dearth of an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) chargeable for this uncommon delay. In a put up on X on Saturday, Alvi mentioned, “Had EVMs been there today, my dear beloved Pakistan would have been spared this crisis (of poll result delay).”
“EVM had paper ballots that could be counted separately by hand (like it is being done today) BUT it also had a simple electronic calculator/counter of each vote button pressed. Totals of every candidate would have been available & printed within five minutes of the closing of the poll. The entire effort that included more than 50 meetings at the Presidency alone was scuttled,” Arif Alvi tweeted.
Moreover, there have been a number of claims about elections being rigged in Pakistan regardless of the usage of poll papers for voting.
An Electronic Voting Machine or EVM is a tool used to electronically file and depend votes forged in elections. It consists of the Ballot Unit (BU ), Control Unit (CU) and the later added Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT). The VVPAT permits voters to confirm that their votes are forged as meant.
So, ought to Indian political leaders pay attention to this EVM concern flagged by Alvi? Over the years, many politicians in India have criticised the usage of EVMs for polling throughout common and meeting elections. They have accused others of either hacking or tampering with EVMs. The debate over the usage of EVMs Vs VVPAT slips Vs poll papers has been occurring in India for a protracted.
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Congress chief Digvijaya Singh had said final yr that he has “opposed voting by EVM since 2003”. He argued that “any machine with a chip can be hacked”. He quite demanded the handover of “the VVPAT slip in voter’s hand and allow him to see that the vote has also been correctly “printed””. He had said this in response to a suggestion that “counting of 100% vvpats” must be there. It “gained’t take greater than a day,” the X consumer had mentioned.
Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav had on December 15 pushed for the usage of poll papers as an alternative of EVMs for voting. According to information company PTI, Yadav referred to EVMs with out naming it and mentioned that “these machines” and the (ballot) outcomes have created a sense of mistrust in folks’s minds.
Congress chief Manish Tewari also called for voting on paper ballots in the course of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. He reportedly mentioned that EVM is a machine and might be rigged and hacked.
But can EVMs be manipulated? Here’s what India’s Election Commission says
The Election Commission says that EVMs are digital machines and like every other machine, they’re additionally susceptible to failures. The failed machines are despatched to the factories for rectification.
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The Election Commission provides that there isn’t a query of any machine ‘malfunctioning’ in a means in order to favour a specific candidate, which is named tampering as per outlined EVM protocol. “This state of affairs is simply not potential with the various safeguards incorporated in the design of EVM itself,” the ballot physique says.
It additional says, “There is no wastage of any vote in EVMs.”
The Election Commission additionally offers a clarification on whether or not “there any provision for a Voter to lodge a complaint if the paper slip generated by VVPAT shows the name or symbol of a candidate other than the one he voted for“.
It says that as per the provisions of Rule 49MA of Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961, the Presiding Officer obtains a written declaration from the voter as to the allegation, after informing the elector in regards to the consequence of creating a false declaration as per the Indian Penal Code.
“If the elector gives the written declaration referred to in sub-rule (1) of Rule 49MA, the Presiding Officer permits the elector to record a test vote in the voting machine in his/her presence and in the presence of the candidates or polling agents who may be present in the polling station, and observe the paper slip generated by the printer,” the EC says.
“If the allegation is found true, the Presiding Officer will report the facts immediately to the Returning Officer, stop further recording of votes in that voting machine and act as per the directions that may be given by the Returning Officer,” it provides.
And if the allegation is discovered to be false and the paper slip so generated below sub-rule (1) matches with the check vote recorded by the elector below sub-rule (2), then, the Presiding Officer shall “make a remark to that effect against the second entry relating to that elector in Form 17A, Rule 49L”.
He then should point out the serial quantity and title of the candidate for whom such check vote has been recorded; Obtain the signature or thumb impression of that elector in opposition to such remarks; and make essential entries relating to such check vote in merchandise 5 in Part I of Form 17C.
What consultants have mentioned
EVM consultants advised the Wire that whereas EVMs can’t be hacked, as a result of they don’t seem to be linked to Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or the Internet, they are often simply manipulated. Madhav Deshpande, a former CEO of Tulip Software, mentioned in an interview in January this yr that there are “holes and gaps in the system” as EVMs are “relying on an old technology”.
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However, the Election Commission of India (EC) had earlier assured the Supreme Court that EVMs can neither be hacked nor tampered with. In an affidavit spanning over 450 pages, the EC had mentioned EVMs are “completely stand-alone machines having one-time programmable chips”.
In 2017, the then Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi had mentioned, “…our machines are tamper-proof, if you change the internal circuit of our machines, then they aren’t our machines…”
Besides, the Times of India had cited a report by a committee of consultants shaped by the ballot panel as saying that tampering is simply potential with bodily entry and the frilly sealing means of EVMs executed by by the ECI prevents this from taking place.
Upsides of EVM
A analysis paper confirmed that the change to digital voting in India virtually eradicated invalid votes: “This consequence stems straight from the design of the machine: Indian EVMs, with their finite menu of buttons, make it virtually not possible to forged an invalid poll,” a researcher had mentioned.
Moreover, one other latest analysis paper recommended the introduction of EVMs not solely helped cut back election fraud but additionally helped enhance growth outcomes by empowering poor and marginal voters. Tap here to read the use of EVMs in details
Here’s your complete 3-minute abstract of all of the issues Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman mentioned in her Budget speech: Click to download!
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