PUNE: Expressing serious concern over the way electronic voting machines can malfunction, former Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Mumbai Kirit Somaiya this evening demanded a ban on the use of machines that have no paper backups and strongly advocated adopting electronic voting machines that produce paper receipts.
“The BJP will put forth a demand for use of electronic voting machines (EVM) with paper back-up during the forthcoming state assembly elections,” he said. “Under the proposed system, after casting a vote, the EVM will immediately produce a slip. This slip will have a sign printed, confirming that the vote has gone to same candidate to which the voter intends to choose.”
The voter would then drop this slip in a ballot box so that the votes can be verified.
At a demonstration held at the Pune Union of Working Journalists Center, Somaiya put forth a demonstration on the flaws in the machines that can provide inaccurate or biased voting results.
“The election commission has to date not revealed what happened to the votes cast on these machines,” he said.
Analyzing voting patterns from across the country, Somaiya showed how certain independent candidates, who he said had no political background or standing, polled a usually high number of votes.
“You can hack the software and hardware through physical manipulation or through remote access,” Somaiya said as he demonstrated live using a demo machine. Somaiya, along with his senior party colleagues and Shiv Sena leaders, are scheduled to meet the election commission Tuesday in New Delhi to demand doing away of the electronic voting machines in their existing format.
