ON May 21, 22 political parties met at Delhi, after the polling to the 17th Lok Sabha was over. The leadership of the 22 parties later met the Election Commission of India and submitted a memorandum regarding the process to be followed for counting of ‘voter-verified paper audit trail’ (VVPAT) slips.

Excerpts from the memorandum:

In the backdrop of probability of hacking of EVMs, the 22 political parties, which represent the voice of 70 per cent of the electorate of our country, had reached out to the Election Commission of India in January 2019 to increase the VVPAT slips counting to 100 per cent or revert to the old paper ballot system.

On  April 8, 2019, the Supreme Court directed mandatory verification of VVPAT paper slips of randomly selected (five) polling stations instead of (one) in all assembly and bye elections to the house of people(Lok Sabha) and state legislative assemblies

The Election Commission in its letter dated April 15, 2019, prescribed that VVPAT slips for five polling stations shall be counted after the completion of last round of counting of votes recorded in the EVMs as under:

• In case of general and bye elections to state legislative assemblies, verification of VVPAT slips of randomly five polling stations per assembly constituency.
• In case of general and bye elections to the house of people, verification of VVPAT paper slips of randomly selected five polling stations of each assembly segment of the parliamentary constituency concerned.

The Election Commission further in its letter dated April 15, 2019, laid down the procedure for mandatory verification of VVPAT slips. However, there are many discrepancies in the procedure prescribed by the ECI which is against the spirit of judgement of Supreme Court of India.

In case of a discrepancy between the count of votes displayed on the ‘control unit’ and the count of printed paper slips in respect of that polling station, the result sheet will be amended as per the printed paper slips count. ECI has not deliberated on the reasons of discrepancy and investigation into that. Also, it clearly specifies that there is a possibility of tampering of EVMs. The solution prescribed by ECI is for only two per cent of polling stations, however, in the event of tampering of EVMs in the remaining 98 per cent polling stations, which may so happen since the EVMs are prone to tampering, no guideline or procedure has been prescribed by ECI.

ECI has conveniently avoided discussion on discrepancy in its letter on April 15, leave alone finding a solution. ECI, in annexure-A prescribed reports of verification of paper slips of VVPAT of five randomly selected polling stations (separate for each polling station-to be sent only to CEO concerned). In this report, the last column of the first table contains “discrepancy if any” between number of votes cast as per EVM and as per paper slips. Surprisingly, this is required to be sent by the returning officer(RO) and ECI observer to the chief electoral officer of the state concerned only and not to ECI. The ECI is confining these reports only to the CEOs. It is still not clear what the CEOs will do with these reports in case of any discrepancy.

Further, annexure B(report format), which is addressed to Election Commission and certifies the entire process of counting has been done under close supervision, does not talk about any discrepancy, and further establishes the fact that ECI is not interested in knowing the cause of discrepancies.

Regarding the above mentioned discrepancies, the 22 opposition parties had voiced out to ECI on May 6, 2019, however no response or clarification has been received from ECI as yet.

In addition to the above mentioned concerns, we also seek clarity on below mentioned guidelines prescribed under ‘handbook for counting agent - February 2019, document number 24, edition 1, for counting for general elections 2019.

If there is any mismatch between the CU and form 17C with regard to votes polled and the difference is significant, what is the procedure to be followed ?

As per clause 13.1, in case of a discrepancy between part 1(account of votes recorded) and Part II (result of counting) of form 17C, counting officer should note down such details and as per 13.2; he should bring to the notice of ARO/RO for appropriate action to be taken as per law. It is therefore requested to clarify the ‘law’ as per 13.2 and subsequent process to be followed.

As per clause 12, following action is to be taken in case of malfunctioning during counting of votes:

• In case any CU does not display result, it should be kept back inside its carrying case and to be kept in RO’s custody in the counting hall.
• Result from such CU(s) will not be retrieved using ‘auxiliary’ display unit or printer.
• After completion of counting of votes, all the CUs, printed paper slips of the respective VVPAT shall be counted as per the counting procedure prescribed by commission to count VVPAT slips.

The memorandum raises the question; whether the above process of counting to be followed subsequently in counting hall or are there any changes to the above procedure?

The memorandum submitted to the ECI further explains to it that the clause 16.1 states, ‘normally there will be no question of recount of votes recorded in the voting machines’. In case there is a need of re-verification, recounting can be done by pressing the ‘result’ button, and the result of voting at that polling station will be displayed on display panels of CU and rule 63 of conduct of the elections will apply. Therefore, it is requested to delete clause 16.1 as it becomes inappropriate.

The memorandum further stated:

In light of the above mentioned concerns, we the leaders of 22 political parties demand the following:

• It is requested that the verification of VVPAT slips of randomly identified (five) polling stations should be done prior to the initiation of counting of votes and not after the completion of last round of counting.

• If any discrepancy is found anywhere during the VVPAT verification, 100 per cent counting of paper slips of VVPATs of all polling stations of that assembly segment should be done.