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Journalism of Courage
The Pune city unit of the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) Wednesday lambasted the Maharashtra State Election Commission for its decision not to use voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines in the upcoming civic body elections and called for the use of ballot papers to ensure the integrity of the polls in such a scenario.
“The municipal corporation election process is now gaining momentum. The State Election Commission has made a shocking decision not to use VVPAT, creating a conducive situation for electoral malpractice. It cites insufficient availability of VVPAT machines as a reason,” said Pune NCP(SP) chief Prashant Jagtap.
VVPAT machine is an independent system connected to an electronic voting machine (EVM), which allows voters to verify that their vote has been correctly registered. The VVPAT prints a slip that includes the serial number, the name of the candidate, and the election symbol of the selected candidate, and it is displayed to the voter through a transparent window.
State Election Commissioner Dinesh Waghmare Tuesday said the civic body elections are expected to take place in November-December. He also noted that VVPAT machines were not used in previous civic body elections, and they will not be used in the upcoming polls either.
“Parliament has not passed any law mandating the use of EVM machines in elections other than the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. If there are not enough VVPAT machines available to conduct the election process, the question arises: why insist on using EVM machines at all?” asked Jagtap.
He said if VVPAT is not used in the election, then it should be conducted using ballot papers. Otherwise, the party will challenge this procedure in the Supreme Court, he added.
He said that in the 2024 Lok Sabha and Maharashtra Assembly elections, the country witnessed allegations of serious irregularities in the voting process in many places. “Several candidates from constituencies, including the Hadapsar Assembly segment, approached courts demanding a recount of votes, and the court gave a decision to conduct a recount in those cases.”
“In this entire process, the VVPAT machine has proven to be a highly important component. Despite this, the decision taken by the State Election Commission is extremely unfortunate and appears to fuel electoral corruption,” said Jagtap, who is not the only Opposition leader to have criticised the Election Commission over VVPAT.
On Tuesday, Shiv Sena (UBT) spokesperson Sushma Andhare said that if VVPAT machines are not used in local body polls, it raises serious issues of transparency of the elections. Congress MLA Vijay Wadettiwar, too, questioned the logic behind not using the VVPAT machines in local body polls.
