'This is total fraud. You are showing me the slip of my vote but not counting it so this is fraud.'
In the 2012 assembly elections, Goa had recorded an impressive 81.8 per cent voting.
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.
Among other things, the model code of conduct bars the government from announcing any policy move that may impact voters' decision.
'After a month of working on the new machine, I realised that the black glass on the VVPAT lets the programmer manipulate not just the electronic system, but the paper vote too.' 'And it will not be detected even during the mock poll or the actual voting because of the black glass.'
4 EVMs and a similar number of VVPATs were found at the house of a TMC leader in West Bengal's Howrah district, following which a poll official was suspended.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said that polls can be rigged through social media, and that if social media companies want, they can make any party win an election.
The counting of votes for the high-stakes assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur will begin at 8 am.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday deprecated criticism of electronic voting machines (EVMs) and calls for reverting to ballot papers, saying the electoral process in India is a "humongous task" and attempts should not be made to "bring down the system".
Chidambaram told SC that to assure accuracy in the voting process, paper trail is needed as there were chances of tampering with EVMs.
"The voter turnout data for the first two phases of the ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha elections published by ECI on April 30 has been published after 11 days of the first phase of polling... on April 19 and four days after second phase of polling... on April 26.
This is for the first time in a Lok Sabha election that results of voting machines will be matched with slips generated by paper trail machines.
According to the EC, no mismatch has been reported since the practice of cross-checking votes was introduced.
The commission issued letter of intent to ECIL and BEL -- both PSUs -- on Friday, two days after the Union Cabinet cleared its proposal to buy 16,15000 voter verifiable paper audit trail units at an estimated cost of Rs 3,173.47 crore.
Underscoring the importance of voter satisfaction and trust in the electoral system, the Supreme Court on Thursday told petitioners who sought its direction to go back to using ballot papers not to suspect the efficacy of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) and appreciate if the Election Commission does good work.
The EC received complaints from five places that EVMs were connecting to external devices via bluetooth, but after inquiry, it was found that there was 'no substance' in the complaints.
According to the budget document, Rs 1,891.78 crore has been allocated for purchase of EVMs by the poll panel.
The ministry has also been allocated funds for Lok Sabha polls and photo identity cards for voters.
The voting will begin at 7 am and end at 5 pm after the electioneering came to an end on Saturday, 48 hours before the electorate begin casting their votes.
Despite a slow down in polling at midday due to the scorching heat, voter turnout was around 50 per cent till 2 pm on Friday for elections to the lone Mizoram Lok Sabha seat and by-poll to the Hrangturzo assembly seat.
The Supreme Court observed on Monday a person making a "false statement" "must know the consequence" as it leads to stalling the electoral process.
An average 59.24 per cent voter turnout was recorded as of 5 pm on Thursday across 89 assembly seats in the first phase of Gujarat elections, officials said.
The apex court said that a debate on polls reforms can only take place after the election process in the state is over.
Polling is being held for 224 seats in what is being seen mainly as a three-cornered contest between the ruling BJP, the Congress and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda's Janata Dal-Secular.
Writing his views in a separate verdict while concurring with the opinion of Justice Sanjiv Khanna, who was heading the bench, Justice Datta said the question of reverting to "paper ballot system", on facts and in the circumstances, does not and cannot arise.
The state had recorded overall 79.80 per cent turnout in 2012.
The Congress leader said he believes that democracy is derailed and "we are becoming too authoritarian". "It's all about one-man show," he said.
There are 64 vacancies in the legislative assemblies of various states and one in Lok Sabha.
The term of the 224-member Karnataka assembly ends on May 28 this year.
The Supreme Court said on Wednesday it cannot 'control the elections' or issue directions simply because doubts have been raised about the efficacy of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM), as it reserved its judgment on a clutch of petitions claiming the polling devices can be tinkered with to manipulate the results.
While the ruling BJP, riding on the Modi juggernaut, wants to break the 38-year jinx and retain its southern citadel, the Congress is seeking to wrest power to give the party much-needed elbow room and momentum to position itself as the main opposition player in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
'Although the Election Commission remains convinced about the EVM's integrity, as a fair umpire of the game it was necessary to travel the last mile to convince political players that the entire process was not only fair but transparently so.' A fascinating excerpt from former Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla's new book, Excerpted from Every Vote Counts: The Story Of India's Elections.
The officials said they would need around Rs 4,500 crore to buy nearly 12 lakh additional electronic voting machines and an equal number voter-verifiable paper audit trail machines.
With assembly elections in Bihar likely to be held later this year, the Election Commission is dispatching four special teams of 'auditors' to the state on Monday for weeding out duplicate entries from electoral rolls.
Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra on Thursday said all political parties in Uttar Pradesh want the Assembly elections to be held according to schedule while ensuring Covid protocol.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, which has ruled Gujarat for 27 years, is trying to retain power in the state for the seventh term in a row.
The Supreme Court has made it clear that random matching of VVPAT slips with EVMs will take place in five polling booths per assembly segment. Accordingly, the exercise will be held in 20,600 of the 10.35 lakh polling stations across the country.
Rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa speaks to Satya Dosapati, an official of Save Indian Democracy, the organisation which exposed the fraud, who says that the EC's decision is alarming.
To clear doubts over EVMs, Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi will soon call all-party meet.
'We do not think the EC is doing enough to address issue of EVM malfunctioning'
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