15 opposition parties red-flag RVMs, question EC silence on EVM concerns

Leaders of about 15 Opposition parties on Sunday collectively opposed the Election Commission of India's proposal for remote electronic voting machines (RVMs) for migrant workers by arguing that the poll watchdog not only failed to bring out any clarity on both the definition and size of migrant workers but also failed to credibly address and respond to many pending complaints/memoranda questioning the trustworthiness of the electronic voting machines (EVMs).

After red-flagging the RVM proposal right on the eve of the EC-hosted meeting on Monday, these Opposition parties will formally register their reservations/apprehensions at Monday's meeting for demonstrating RVM prototype and they will, after taking the EC response, will meet again on January 25 to frame their written submissions to the EC.

These Opposition parties firmed up their collective stand at a meeting convened by the Congress and presided over by senior leader Digvijaya Singh at a 'neutral' venue, the Constitution Club.


"The overall view of all political parties which attended the meeting is that they have unanimously opposed the proposal of RVMs because it is still very sketchy, the proposal is not concrete and there are huge political anomalies. And the problem in the proposal is also in the definition of migrant labourers, the number of migrant labourers is not very clear. Therefore, we all have unanimously made up our minds to oppose the proposal of RVMs," Digvijaya Singh said after the meeting.

Singh then raised the EVM concerns and the EC's silence: "There have been innumerable concerns about the trust in the EVMs, whether it is a standalone machine, whether it is connected to the internet, who are the manufacturers supplying the microchips, who is burning the software? All these concerns were documented after discussions with computer scientists, professionals and civil society and given in a memorandum (to EC) on May 2, 2022. But the EC has not even responded to them. We shall discuss all these on January 25".

CPI leader D Raja said: "We will raise critical questions about RVMs, EVMs and about migrant workers at the meeting called by EC on Monday. Without taking political parties into confidence, the EC can't decide anything unilaterally".