Shifting of Electronic Voter Machine Stirred to Controversy

Only 15 days left, for the new government to sworn in, the counting of votes is scheduled on 23 rd May 2019. The Election Commission has decided to shift the 50 unused EVM’s from Coimbatore to Theni, which made controversy and various parties started to protest.

The massive number of DMK supporters along with Congress and other allied parties condemned this action and sieged the Theni taluk office by restricting the officials from bringing new EVM machines. The EVM’s and VVPAT’s used during Lok Sabha election on 18th April 2019 for two constituencies has been kept in the private engineering college.

Meanwhile, Satyabrata Sahoo, the Chief Electoral Officer of TN has explained that “shifting of EVM’s is a common thing and as a precautious measure of repoll when required, the EVM’s are being moved”. According to the reports, 50 EVM ballot units are shifted from Coimbatore to Theni and 20 unused VVPAT’s are moved from Coimbatore to Erode. These are reserved units and if any repoll is required, it can be used.

Opposition party DMK has criticized this act and reported that there wasn’t any procedures or protocols has been followed during this transfer process. The DMK secretary T.K.S Elangovan has claimed that “When none of the political parties demanded repoll, the shifting of EVM’s by Election Commission seemed to be suspicious”. He further explained that “Even if repolls are necessary, it should be informed in prior before shifting the EVM’s and this process should take place under the presence of various political party representatives”.

Due to various reasons, there may be repolls in 10 booths of Lok Sabha constituencies, recommended by the CEO. It includes 8 booths in Pappidreddipatti (Dharmapuri Assembly Constituency), 1 booth at Poonamallee and one booth at Thiruvadhigai village, the repolling in these booths are yet to be confirmed.