Gujarat results: EVMs put up a blameless show, says EC

NEW DELHI: Even as Patidar leader Hardik Patel on the day of counting of votes reiterated doubts on electronic voting machines’ (EVMs) reliability, Election Commission claimed no mismatch was reported when votes in select constituencies were tallied with paper trail of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines.

“There has been no discrepancy reported from any booth as per initial data. It is quite unlikely there will be any report otherwise,” a highly placed EC official told ET.

The match between EVM result and VVPAT count was considered crucial to setting to rest doubts raised by politicians regarding the reliability of EVMs and security.


After deciding to use VVPATS in all polling stations in Gujarat and HImachal Pradesh, this is the first time EC held a mandatory count of VVPAT paper trail across all constituencies. Polling stations were chosen randomly by a draw of lots, officials said. EC had decided to that tally votes with paper trail in one polling station of each constituency in Gujarat and two each in Himachal Pradesh. While Patel raised doubts on hacking via Twitter on Sunday, on Monday he alleged the machines were tampered with in Ahmedabad and Surat to ensure BJP won.

Refuting these allegations, officials at EC said all necessary security protocols were followed to ensure elections were conducted fairly. While EC reportedly received 44 complaints of EVMs being connected to Bluetooth during polling in Porbander, Surat, Ahmedabad and Vadodra, it said all were investigated and found to be ‘incorrect’.

“Even breakdown levels of malfunctioning (mainly due to damage during transportation and uncharged batteries) was low at 0.5-0.7%,in the first phase and even lower in phase II,” an official said. “Our EVMs are very reliable and EC has already commissioned more advanced EVMs that will be delivered in 2018. Results in both states have shown that the EVM controversy needs to be put to rest,” a former election commissioner requesting anonymity told ET.