Mayawati questions EVM-based voting

Lucknow: BSP chief Mayawati on Thursday questioned the credibility of the electronic voting machine-based electoral process, alleging that EVMs were being used to influence free and fair voting and claiming that a large section of the population was demanding a return to the ballot paper system.

In a statement issued after a meeting of the BSP’s Uttar Pradesh unit office-bearers here, Mayawati said her party was the first to oppose the use of EVMs after noticing concerns over the credibility of the voting process.

“After the BSP ensured unity and awareness among the Bahujan Samaj, a new method was allegedly devised to influence free and fair voting by using EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines) as a weapon,” she said. The former chief minister added that when the BSP first opposed the system over concerns about the credibility of voting, opposition parties and elements favouring the existing establishment did not appreciate its stand.

“Today, most people in the country do not consider the EVM-based system prima facie to be compatible with a free and fair electoral process and are demanding restoration of the earlier arrangement of conducting elections through ballot papers,” Mayawati said. She also alleged that the Congress had a widely known tainted record in matters relating to electoral malpractice. The BSP chief linked the credibility of elections to wider political, social and economic challenges in the country, including poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, migration of landless people and other labourers from villages due to compulsion, irregularities in examinations and corruption at different levels.

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