On Tuesday, 15th October, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar rubbished the claims of the Congress party who blamed the EVMs after facing losses in the recently happened Haryana State Assembly elections. “The public answers the questions by participating in the voting. As far as EVMs are concerned, they are 100% secure and foolproof,” Kumar said. This notably comes on the day when the Commission is about to announce the dates of elections scheduled to happen in the states of Maharashtra and Jharkhand.
The BJP won the Haryana elections by securing 48 seats out of 90 while the Congress won 37. After the election results were declared, the Congress party blamed the EVMs and claimed that the BJP had won the elections by tampering with the EVMs.
Last week, Congress sought a comprehensive investigation into ‘discrepancies’ allegedly discovered in some Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) during vote counting in the Haryana assembly elections, as well as the sealing and security of such EVMs until the inquiry.
A group of top Congress leaders, including former chief ministers Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Ashok Gehlot, AICC leaders KC Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh, Ajay Maken, and Pawan Khera, and Haryana Congress chairman Udai Bhan, met with top Election Commission officials. The group submitted a memorandum to the officials, along with specific objections from various Haryana constituencies.
The Congress leaders claimed that at least 20 such complaints, seven of which were in writing, had been received from as many assembly constituencies, with many referring to EVMs that were operating at 99 per cent battery capacity while the average EVM was found to be operating at 60 to 70 per cent battery capacity during counting. The party highlighted ‘glaring discrepancies’ relating to several EVMs in the Haryana polls and asked the EC to launch an inquiry.
However, the Election Commission had outrightly rejected the Congress’s claims saying that while fully charged batteries are inserted in EVMs before the polls, the charge level continues to come down with the use of the machines in mock polls, actual voting, and counting.
Official sources of the ECI told the media that there is a link between battery charge levels and voting numbers shown in EVMs. The officials explained that alkaline batteries are used in the Control Unit of the EMVs, and new batteries are inserted on the commissioning of the EVMs for the election in the presence of candidates or their agents, and then the machines are sealed.
The battery provides a voltage between 7.5 and 8 volts. When the voltage is above 7.4, the battery capacity is displayed as 99 per cent. As the battery charge is consumed with the use of the EVM for voting, the charge level is displayed as coming down gradually from 98% to 10%. The EVM works till the battery has over 5.8 volts. Before reaching 10% charge, the control unit starts displaying a low battery warning.
The ECI further explained that the capacity of the battery on the counting day depends upon the mock poll conducted on the control unit, the actual poll, and the initial voltage of the battery which can vary between 7.5 to 8 volts.
The Congress leaders also alleged that there were delays in publishing the results of the Haryana elections, and Jairam Ramesh submitted a formal complaint with the ECI. The Commission meanwhile also rejected the claims saying that the counting of votes was carried out as per Rule 60 of Conduct of Election Rules at the designated counting centres and by the designated authorities following the Statutory and Regulatory regime.
The ECI reminded the Congress party that as per rules, the entire counting process in Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir was unfolding in the presence of candidates, observers, and micro-observers. The response by the ECI categorically stated, “There is nothing on record to substantiate your ill-founded allegation of slowdown in updating of results.”
The ECI provided publicly available data from its website which showed that approximately 25 rounds of counting across all constituencies were being updated every 5 minutes on Tuesday, which testifies to the dissemination of the counting process in a speedy manner.
