Delhi Polls: Election Commission likely to act against Arvind Kejriwal for creating confusion on EVM machines

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission is mulling action against Arvind Kejriwal for ‘creating confusion’ among voters without ‘definite proof’ following his tweet on Tuesday regarding tampering of electronic voting machines. Kejriwal had alleged that four EVM machines in the Delhi Cantonment constituency did not register votes properly during a mock poll conducted on Monday.

The tweet sent the poll panel into a tizzy, with deputy election commissioner Vinod Zutshi seeking a response from the concerned district election officer and engineers of Bharat Electronic Limited on the matter. Top sources in the poll panel dismissed Kejriwal’s allegations.

“Not one EVM in Delhi Cantt had malfunctioned. There are about 190 polling booths here. All EVMs in this constituency are ones with voter verified paper trail audit or VVPAT. We have proof of a smooth mock poll,” said an EC officer, who was not authorised to speak to the media.

Large scale EVM tampering? Yest, during inspection of EVMs in Del cant, in 4 machines, whatever button u pressed, light against BJP lit

— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) February 3,2015

“Time and again people have alleged that EVMs have been tampered with but no one has ever been able to prove it. In 2010, when similar attempts were made, we extended an open invitation to test the EVMs for themselves. All doubts were laid to rest then. There’s no reason for someone to raise doubts again,” said a EC officer who did not wish to identified.

Despite EC’s claim, the voting machines had come under the scanner during the Lok Sabha polls when some EVMs were found faulty. In Guwahati, the machine registered all votes in favour of BJP irrespective of the button pressed. The poll panel attributed this problem to the age of the machines.

“That problem was occurring only in those machines which were procured before 2006. We are now phasing them out. Moreover, for Delhi elections, only post 2006 machines are being used. So no party has a reason to worry,” the above officer added.