Leaders of 23 political parties met Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora and Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa, seeking redressal of the issue of alleged tampering of electronic voting machines before Lok Sabha polls.
The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Election Commission to explore the possibility of introducing Vote Verifier Paper Audit Trail in EVMs to maintain paper record of each vote for upcoming assembly polls in five states and next general election in 2014.
The arrest of Hari K Prasad, who recently proved that Electronic Voting Machines can be hacked into and stolen, has shocked many.
All 13 candidates in the fray in Indore against Lalwani, who won by a potentially record margin votes, lost their security deposit, indicating they were clearly rejected by the voters. If a candidate gets fewer than one-sixth of the total valid votes cast in a constituency, his/her security deposit is seized by the EC.
The arrest of Hariprasad has come as a major set back for all those activists who are on a mission to prove that the Electronic Voting Machine can be tampered with. Hari Prasad, the technical coordinator of VeTA (Citizens for Verifiability, Transparency and Accountability in Elections), was arrested from Hyderabad on Saturday in connection with the theft of an EVM from Mumbai.
Right to Information activist Anjali Bhardwaj said the VVPAT system should be re-calibrated to be fully voter-verifiable.
The IMD has warned of heatwave to severe heatwave conditions in parts of West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh during the next five days.
"Mock polls" are part of the first level check (FLC) process.
Rediff.com has highlighted many stories about the controversy surrounding the EVMs and the growing opposition to their usage. In a letter to rediff.com, a representative of Election commissioner Dr S Y Quraishi's office has clarified the EC's position over the matter, which is threatening to blow up into a major issue of national concern.
Political parties and leaders wait with bated breath for the Haryana and Jammu-Kashmir assembly poll results on Tuesday.
Twelve constituencies of Bastar division were among 20 assembly segments in Chhattisgarh that went to the polls in the first phase on November 7. A high voter turnout of 78 per cent was recorded in these 20 seats.
Opposition parties demanded that all elections in the future be held through ballot papers.
The Commission has decided to refer to the Technical Expert Committee for detailed examination of 'voter verifiable paper trail' in EVMs in all its aspects through a process of wide consultation, the EC said in a press note on Friday.
The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to take up for hearing on priority basis Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy's plea to incorporate paper printouts in electronic voting machines or restore paper balloting system allegedly because EVMs "are not tamper proof."
Voting in the first phase began with reports of multiple faulty electronic voting machines at various booths, prompting Congress leaders to request quick action from the poll body.
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.
Holding simultaneous polls for the Lok Sabha and all assemblies would need any no-confidence motion to be coupled with a 'confidence motion' by a leader proposed as next prime minister or chief minister, while any mid-term election can be conducted only for remainder of the term, the Election Commission had said earlier.
The Supreme Court on Monday sought the stands of the Centre and the Election Commission on Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy's plea to incorporate either paper printouts with EVMs or restore paper balloting as the electronic machines are "not tamper-proof".Issuing notices to the Centre and the poll panel, a bench of justices P Sathavisam and J Chelameswar sought their replies on Swamy's plea, which challenged the Delhi high court's order dismissing his petition.
The respective Dussehra rallies of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and and Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray chief Uddhav Thackeray were once again about whose version of Hindutva is genuine and who is the true inheritor of party patriarch Bala Thackeray's legacy.
The man who showed that Electronic Voting Machines could be tampered with will be in police custody for another two days in the EVM theft case even as a demand was made in Parliament for an all-party meeting to discuss in depth their "vulnerability" in elections.
"The journey from Hayuliang to Malogam takes a full day on foot," Joint Chief Electoral Officer Liken Koyu told PTI.
In the first such initiative, the Bharatiya Janata Party has invited the ruling and Opposition parties from around the world to witness the Lok Sabha elections in India first-hand.
The counting of votes for the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh polls along with six assembly and one Lok Sabha by-elections will commence at 8 am on Thursday with prohibitory orders in place around counting halls to ensure peace and tranquillity.
'If we get 399 seats and you say we have not crossed 400, then it is your wisdom. But the '400 paar' slogan is based on calculation and considered opinion'
Khera told reporters in Hyderabad that the views of the newly-elected MLAs have been elicited and the central leadership is seized of the matter.
A maximum of 92,000 personnel of CAPFs are likely to be deployed in politically volatile West Bengal, where elections will be held in seven phases, followed by 63,500 personnel in militancy-hit Jammu and Kashmir, where polling will be held in five phases.
The Election Commission (EC) on Saturday came out with the constituency-wise data on the number of votes cast in the first five phases of the Lok Sabha polls and said there is a pattern in creating false narratives and mischievous designs to vitiate the electoral process.
Over 19,000 polling officials have been deployed at 3,419 booths set up for the elections to the 59 assembly seats, Chief Electoral Officer F R Kharkongor said.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday said his party would pull off a spectacular victory in the state assembly elections, but evaded a direct reply to a question whether he would be the chief minister for the fifth time, as he just said 'Bharatiya Janata Party Zindabad'.
A total 61.92 per cent votes were cast in the first phase of polls in 13 of the 81 assembly seats in Jharkhand amidst sporadic incidents of damage to Electronic Voting Machines.
Banerjee also alleged that the BJP is manipulating electronic voting machines to increase its vote share.
With Lok Sabha polls next year and assembly elections round the corner in some key states, the government cleared a proposal on Thursday to procure 1.80 lakh Electronic Voting Machines.
Nationalist Congress Party legislator Shahshikant Shinde said he was witness to such a thing happening when he visited the polling booth in Navlewadi village of Koregaon tehsil in Satara district.
Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Friday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of targetting her for raising a voice against alleged electronic voting machines tampering and said she was not averse to shaking hands with other parties in her fight against the saffron party on the issue.
In a post in Hindi on X, Gandhi accused the prime minister of twisting his words and said he was speaking about the power of which Modi was wearing the mask.
Modi underlined his commitment to taking strict action against the corrupt amid criticism by opposition parties that probe agencies were used by his government to target their leaders.
Days after Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar undertook an hours-long trek to a remote polling station in Uttarakhand, the poll panel on Tuesday decided to double the remuneration of polling officials going to such booths as early as three days before voting day.
The counting of votes in three out of four states on Sunday showed that less than 1 percent of the voters exercised the 'none of the above' option in the just-concluded assembly polls, according to the election commission.
The former Congress president alleged that PM Modi had a "monopoly over corruption".
The editorial in Saamana said the "Wagner group" has shown dictatorship can be challenged.
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