On Thursday, as the counting of votes is underway for the 2022 Assembly Elections in the states of Goa, Manipur, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Uttarakhand, Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra refuted the allegations of EVM tampering by the EC and affirmed that counting of votes is an absolutely transparent process.
“There is no question of EVM tampering. EVMs are sealed in the presence of political party agents. The counting of votes is a transparent process. There is a standard operating procedure under which the counting of votes is conducted. Only authorized polling agents of the political parties are allowed to come inside the counting centre”, Chandra said on March 10.
The counting of votes is a transparent process. There is a standard operating procedure under which we conduct the counting. Authorised polling agents of the political parties are allowed to come inside the counting centre: Sushil Chandra, Chief Election Commissioner pic.twitter.com/Uwkh4Mbnko
— ANI (@ANI) March 10, 2022
This is after Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said that he had no trust in the election authority and had accused the Election Commission personnel of tampering with the EVMs. The party had also accused the government of ‘stealing the election’ after it wrongly intercepted a truck carrying sample voting machines for training in Varanasi.
According to the reports, the EVMs were supposed to be moved on the mornings of March 10, but the official who is now suspended had taken them out the night before without informing anyone. Responding to this, the Chief Election Commissioner said that the EVMs in Varanasi were meant for training purpose. “The ADM’s mistake was that he did not inform political parties about the movement of EVMs for training purposes as per standard operating procedure”, he stated adding that party members were shown the actual number of EVMs sealed and kept in the strong room for counting. “They were satisfied after this. No EVM on which votes are cast can be taken out from the strong room”, he reiterated.
When questions were raised by some parties, we showed them no. displayed on that EVM. It didn’t match with EVMs that were sealed & kept in the strong room for counting. They were satisfied after this. No EVM on which votes are cast can be taken out from the strong room: CEC
— ANI (@ANI) March 10, 2022
It is important to note that SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s EVM rigging allegations began to pour in shortly after the exit polls in Uttar Pradesh predicted a landslide victory for the BJP on Monday. Some ardent Samajwadi Party supporters had then immediately taken to social media to threaten bloodshed and violence.
He also informed that as decided by the Supreme Court, the Election Commission had taken all the efforts to introduce the candidate and its criminal background to the voters through the ‘Know your Candidate’ application. “We created the application and out of 6900 candidates, more than 1600 were with a criminal background”, he added.
‘Know your candidate’ App was a successful initiative by EC. Supreme Court had decided that people with criminal backgrounds should be known to the voters. So, we created this app & out of 6,900 candidates, more than 1,600 were with a criminal background: CEC Sushil Chandra pic.twitter.com/MfZ5RFLhQ8
— ANI (@ANI) March 10, 2022
Speaking further about the Assembly Elections in five states, the counting of which is underway, the Chief Election Commissioner praised the female participation in managing the polling stations. “Around 31,000 additional voting stations were built. We set about 1,900 polling stations managed by women, which resulted in a high level of female participation. In four of the five states, the percentage of female voters was higher than the percentage of male voters,” he added.
The counting of votes for the 690 seats spread across five states started at 8 am on March 10. While exit polls predict the return of CM Yogi Adityanath in Uttar Pradesh and give Punjab to AAP, all eyes are perhaps fixed on the heated race in Uttarakhand and Goa, where both the BJP and the Congress are fighting out a fierce battle.
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