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In what is being seen as China composite film liquid flexible packaging machines Suppliers a huge setback, repolls had to take place in 73 booths of Kairana in UP, 43 booths of Maharashtra and one seat in Nagaland. However, none of them has been able to prove the allegations against the credibility of the EVMs, and neither do they apologise when they win the elections through the same EVMs. Along with the technical security, custodial security of the machines from the factories to the polling booths is equally important. They, however, fail to mention that all the machines in the said nations were made by the same Dutch company.A lot of people, giving the example of Germany, say that EVMs have been declared as illegal by the German Supreme Court. EVMs make the election process transparent.

While it is true that the EC officials should have replaced the machines within the stipulated timeframe of half an hour, there is hardly any cause to question the validity of EVMs.Like any machinery, EVMs are of different varieties and technologies. The Election Commis-sion officials blamed the excessive heat for malfunctioning VVPATs which is surprising, because, when trials were held for VVPATs, they were subjected to all kinds of weather conditions. He is also a distinguished fellow at Trivedi Centre for Political Data, Ashoka University).The Election Commission ensures free and fair elections in the country, an absolute must for a well-functioning democracy.The issue of ‘tamperability’ of EVMs has been doing the rounds ever since they were introduced. Voters can review a physical ballot to confirm their electronic vote. It must immediately put to rest any doubts regarding the credibility of the machines. Reports of malfunctioning Voter Veri-fiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) in the recently-concluded bypolls for national and state Assemblies have once again raised questions about the credibility of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). In fact, in 2013, the Supreme Court had appreciated the EC’s initiative to introduce VVPATs and had directed the government to provide adequate funds for it. I would, however, like to point out that the German Court has not declared EVMs illegal because they found any fault with the technology, but because the German Constitution specifically mentions that the voting needs to be transparent.

The manufacturers have some explaining to do. At no stage, the machines go into private hands. The EVMs are not connected with any external sources whatsoever and, therefore, there is neither any scope of data leak, nor of tampering.”We must remember that our own Supreme Court had given a similar judgement 27 years before its German counterpart in 1982, saying that the Representation of the People Act mentions only ballot paper and not EVM.I am sanguine that a critical introspection of what went wrong and how it would be prevented in future must be under way in the commission.(The writer is a former Chief Election Commissioner and the author of An Undocumented Wonder — The Making of the Great Indian Election. Counting is more efficient and the results can be declared in 3-4 hours instead of the traditional 30-40 hours taken to count votes manually. I believe the EC should be more communicative regarding the EVMs and VVPATs and constantly reassure the nation regarding their legitimacy.