[Reader-list] Fudged EVM's ?

[Rakesh Iyer]

Dear Pawan

The issue that EVM's should not be fudged is certainly something we all will
definitely agree on and should agree on. I don't have the technical know-how
about the EVM's and so believe that we should definitely try to bring about
changes which can help in improving our electoral system being more
transparent. The ballot boxes were indeed difficult to monitor and there
were also chances of booth capture, so the EVM's were introduced.

I think this issue assumes significance in the light of many things. First
of all, it's generally believed or perceived by state govts. that if you
don't keep the bureaucracy and the state officials happy through salaries
and other fiscal goodies for them, you have a greater chance of losing the
elections. This was generally perceived to be the reason for the defeat of
the Congress in the 2003 Assembly elections as well as the 2004 Lok Sabha
defeat of the AIADMK (when the front of AIADMK-BJP didn't win a single seat
in TN). This assumes significance in light of the fact that there can't be
more than 40-50 lakh govt. officials I believe in any state even if one were
to count them, while the state electorate would certainly be very large
compared to this figure.

This may not be related to the EVM fudging necessarily, but this must still
be checked as an issue.

Secondly, the issue of Chidambaram's victory is something which must be
looked into, as has been raised in this forum time and again. It's ironic
that he was trailing by some 3,000 odd votes and then on recounting declared
the victor by around the same margin! Legally this case must be tackled and
found out as to how this is going on. Moreover, there is also the issue of
more votes being polled than being voted, or something like that (I am not
exactly sure of this). This must be checked into it.

I would also like to mention here that as part of the electoral reforms, Mr.
Gopalaswamy (whom I once had the chance to hear in a function) had stated
that to ensure that the state bureaucracy does not manipulate voting in any
form to get the verdict in a transparent manner, the EC had suggested to the
central govt. to form an EC cadre of its own for different states at
constituency level. The idea would be that these officials would not be
aligned with any political party from the family background or otherwise
themselves.

This EC cadre would thereby perform all the functions the state bureaucracy
is currently doing to conduct elections, except maintaining law and order,
which would still be in the hands of the district administration. Also, a
substantial portion of the cadre required for election conduct would be from
outside the state to ensure that impartiality is maintained in this cadre.
The EC also stated that this would bring about employment for many educated
people, as an additional benefit to the transparency obtained through
election.

If I am not wrong, this was based on some PIL filed in the SC long back,
though I may be wrong. On this issue of EVM's, I would say that we need to
get a technical check up of how this system works and whether it can be
easily fudged or not by independent experts (if necessary from outside
India), and the SC can pass the order on this count if this is the case. I
would also like to know whether this PIL is still there in the SC, or not.
And what did the SC do with regard to this PIL?

Please Pawan ji, do inform about this as well.

Regards

Rakesh