The Election Commission today said that Electronic Voting Machines cannot be tampered with, as alleged by some political parties, including the main Opposition party in Tamil Nadu, the AIADMK, and its ally, PMK.
Results for some constituencies were delayed due to a process of random rechecking that the Election Commission had introduced. Counting of votes registered in an electronic voting machine usually does not take more than four hours for an assembly seat. However, the counting continued for six hours in many constituencies in Delhi.
A group of five people, including candidates but excluding security personnel, is allowed to take part in door-to-door campaigning.
The Election Commission has rubbished any allegations of misuse of the EVMs.
The names of candidates in Braille script on electronic voting machines to help visually challenged voters and deployment of helicopters to ferry people from remote areas to the polling booths are some of the special features of the upcoming elections in Andhra Pradesh this year. Chief Electoral Officer I V Subba Rao told reporters on Wednesday that every EVM will have a strip in Braille with the names of the candidates and other details.
Rejecting the contention of political parties like Bharatiya Janata Party, AIADMK and CPI(M) that electronic voting machines (EVMs) were tampered with during the Lok Sabha polls, Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla today said no one was able to prove it.
The key person behind the development of the Electronic Voting Machine and an eminent writer, S Rangarajan alias Sujatha, has died.
A total of 45 nominees are in the fray for the three constituencies having a combined electorate of 26.35 lakh spread over 2,749 polling centres where electronic voting machines are being used.
Polling in other booths of these constituencies were held on February 8.
In a statement, the EC said the presiding officer and three other officials have been placed under suspension.
Pakistan's election commission has expressed its inability to hold general elections within three months due to legal, constitutional and logistical challenges, according to a media report on Tuesday.
The NCP, along with other opposition parties, had repeatedly raised concerns over the possibility of EVM tampering.
Tamenglong and Chandel districts recorded 85 per cent polling.
According to an AAP functionary, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal held a meeting with senior party leaders, including Sanjay Singh and Manish Sisodia, and political strategist Prashant Kishor at his residence on Saturday night.
Ninety nine per cent votes were cast at a polling station in Karong constituency while 95 per cent votes were cast at the Wunghon government primary school polling station in Ukhrul constituency in Ukhrul district.
Under the process, Braille symbols would be installed on the EVMs, thus visually handicapped people should not have any problem in exercising their franchise, a NIVH spokesperson said.
Vidisha seat fell vacant following the resignation of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan while Bharatiya Jan Shakti founder-president and former chief minister Uma Bharti put in her papers from Malehra.
A multi-functional facility, equipped with 36 specially designed vaults for storage of Electronic Voting Machines and VVPATs, was on Friday inaugurated by Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra in Delhi, officials said.
The dinner was followed by a meeting in which nearly two dozen allies facilitated Prime Minister Modi.
The action was taken upon a plea filed by Congress Vikasnagar runner-up candidate Navprabhat on alleged tampering of electronic voting machines.
According to the CEC, while Tripura will go to polls on February 23, the elections in Meghalaya will be held on March 3 and in Nagaland on March 5. The elections in all the three states will be held in a single phase and electronic voting machines will be used this year. While counting of votes for Tripura and Meghalaya is scheduled to be held on March 7, in Nagaland, the counting will take place a day later.
India's leading Islamic seminary at Deoband and the famous Aligarh Muslim University -- widely acknowledged as the think tank of Indian Muslims -- hold much sway on the electorate in a large part of this region.
Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi said in Korba in Chhattisgarh on Friday that chief ministers of Congress ruled states refrain from going among the people fearing that people may throw stones at them.
Barring some stray incidents in some polling stations at Dimapur-I and the destruction of an electronic voting machine at Tuensang Sadar II, the polling passed off peacefully.
The main fight is between Congress candidate V S Sivakumar, fielded by the ruling United Democratic Front, and the Communist Party of India nominee Pannian Ravindran of the Opposition Left Democratic Front.
The poll watchdog also said that as per laws related to elections, after the declaration of results, the only option available to verify the data of votes cast was filing an election petition before the high court concerned.
The Election Commission on Wednesday ruled out any change in the schedule of the West Bengal assembly polls and told the Trinamool Congress that its suggestion to club the last three of the eight phases is "not feasible".
Chief electoral officers will brief Lyngdoh on February 4.
Central Para Military Forces personnel were guarding the EVMs, stored in 41 counting centres and securitymen in adequate strength would be deployed inside and outside the counting centres to ensure its conduct in an orderly and peaceful manner.
Shoot-at-sight orders have been issued and red alert sounded in the districts adjoining India-Nepal border, while aerial and marine surveillance were being carried out by four IAF helicopters and eight motorboats, equipped with sophisticated weapons.
The polls for Arunachal Pradesh will be held on October 7.
Strong rooms spread across the city storing the electronic voting machines (EVMs) are being heavily guarded, with a 'three-layer security ring'. Tight security arrangements have also been put in place at various centres across the national capital.
The last date for filing of nominations is September 22; scrutiny will be taken up the next day.
Leaders of 22 opposition parties met the Election Commission and demanded verification of VVPAT slips of randomly-selected polling stations before the counting of the votes.
They also demanded that if any discrepancy is found during VVPAT verification, 100 per cent counting of the paper slips of VVPATs of all polling stations of that particular assembly segment should be done and compared with the electronic voting machine (EVM) results.
The AAP has announced that it will hold a parallel hackathon of its own.
A lacklustre show by the Congress in Bihar seems to have proved costly for the opposition grand alliance, as it dragged down the RJD too from government formation in the Hindi heartland state.
"If the direction of satellites to Mars and Moon can be controlled from the earth, then why can't EVM be hacked," Udit Raj said in a tweet in Hindi. "If elections were held in America with EVMs, could Trump have lost," he asked.
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