Political parties on Monday said that the Election Commission should take steps to enhance the confidence of people on use of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in polls in view of apprehensions that they could be tampered with.
EVM -- described as the "devil" by one worried voter -- was the hot topic of discussion among the people
The exercise to add the inmates' names to the electoral roll was initiated in February this year.
A Pune-based engineer and activist has been arrested by the city police in connection with a Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) theft case. Mukund Lagoo, a civil engineer and a human rights activist was arrested on Tuesday after two days of questioning.
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 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.
Alex Halderman and Rop Gonggrijp, two of the three scientists who had exposed the flaws in the Election Commission's EVMs, flew in to New Delhi around 2 am on Monday and were detained immediately. After a harrowing wait for hours, the duo was let off in the evening.
Nandan Nilekani introduces extracts from his book, Imagining India, exclusive to rediff.com
Against the backdrop of some opposition parties raising doubts about the functioning of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMS), the Election Commission on Friday said no party has been able to prove that the machine could be tampered with.
On the first day of Parliament's winter session, the Lok Sabha on Tuesday passed the Orissa Bill and approved the name of Orissa state to 'Odisha', and its language to 'Odia' from Oriya.
So, 11 years after the country switched to EVMs, voters in the 12 Telangana constituencies will once again be depending on paper ballots, ballot boxes and manual counting of votes in the July 27 bye-elections.
Following defeat in the recent elections in six municipal corporations in the state, the Gujarat Congress on Thursday alleged that the Electronic Voting Machines used during the polls were tampered with, and claimed that it was the "machine magic" that did the trick for Bharatiya Janata Party.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist on Monday asked the Election Commission to convene an all-party meeting to allay their apprehensions about the reliability of electronic voting machines.
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.
Narinder Batra on Saturday became the first Indian to be elected the President of the International Hockey Federation after he was voted to the top post by an overwhelming margin during the penultimate day of the 45th FIH Congress in Dubai. Batra, who is the president of Hockey India, defeated David Balbirnie of Ireland and Australia's Ken Read to become the 12th FIH President -- the first Asian to grab the post.
A formal invitation for the rally had been sent to Kishor, a senior TMC leader told PTI.
The main opposition Telugu Desam party has stepped up its opposition to the use of Electronic Voting Machines saying they were vulnerable to the manipulation and the people did not have confidence in the machines after the non governmental organizations exposed their unreliability.
The protesters, including AAP MLAs and newly appointed Delhi convener Gopal Rai, alleged that the manipulation of electronic voting machines was killing democracy.
Siddiqui, who hails from Banda, was earlier removed as the party in-charge of Uttar Pradesh and was appointed as the MP unit in-charge after the assembly poll debacle.
Allaying all doubts on the possibility of Electronic Voting Machine tampering, Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla on Tuesday said the machines used in India are stand-alone machines and cannot be manipulated.
Bharatiya Janata Party chief Nitin Gadkari on Friday said his party was not against Electronic Voting Machines or the use of technology in elections, but wanted paper back-up, as it had not been proved conclusively that EVMs were tamper-proof. Gadkari insisted that reservations about EVMs were not confined to the BJP alone and many other political parties, including the Orissa unit of the Congress, were wary of its use."The system should be modernised," Gadkari said.
The state police in poll-bound Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh will be kept away from guarding the strong rooms where the Electronic Voting Machines will be stored after polling.
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked the Election Commission to inform it whether a system incorporating ballot papers with Electronic Voting Machines was possible to implement during elections.Acting on a petition filed by Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy, a division bench of Chief Justice A P Shah and Justice Manmohan directed the EC's counsel to file an affidavit in this regard by October 21.
The high court had on May 12, nullified 2017 election of Chudasama on the ground of malpractice and manipulation and have also refused to stay of the operation of the order till the disposal of his appeal
The challenge would be held in the first week of May and could continue for ten days.
In the backdrop of allegations by certain political parties that the Electronic Voting Machines could be hacked, the Election Commission on Thursday said EVMs were and are tamper proof.
Election Commission on Saturday invited petitioners before various courts as also political parties to prove if the Electronic Voting Machines can be tampered.
The Supreme Court on Monday declined to entertain a Public Interest Litigation, questioning the functioning of Electronic Voting Machines and seeking a direction to the Election Commission to withhold using them till the machines are made tamper proof.
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.
A day after Election Commission rejected his claim that Electronic Voting Machines are not tamper-proof, former bureaucrat Omesh Saigal on Tuesday stuck to his charge that a particular software can be used to rig the polls.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani on Sunday found support from rivals Communist party of India - Marxist, Janata Dal - Secular and Lok Janshakti Party for his suggestion for the re-introduction of ballot papers in place of Electronic Voting Machines.Advani has not cast any doubts on the results of the Lok Sabha elections but feels the country should revert to ballot papers, starting with the Maharashtra assembly elections in October and some more states later.
Former Union law and commerce minister Subramaniam Swamy has written a letter to the Election Commission, demanding a paper trail to 'substantiate and verify the election results' obtained from Electronic Voting Machines.In his letter, Swamy has argued that it is possible to manipulate the EVMs, by planting a software programme that could produce an election result in favour of a particular candidate.
"In the entire elections, there were massive crowds in my rallies. I did not expect such a thing will happen. I hope the next government will work better than SP government," he said.
To counter the doubts over the machine's reliability, the Election Commission has come out with a list of FAQs to put across its views in public domain.
Nearly 68 per cent of the 3.62 crore-strong electorate today turned out to vote in Rajasthan Assembly election that witnessed stray incidents of caste violence and malfunctioning of Electronic Voting Machines.
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.
Over 74 lakh voters will seal the fate of 628 candidates in electronic voting machines between 8 am to 5 pm when polling concludes, state Election office informed.
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.
'We cannot override the CJI's order... This is nonsense'
'Hopefully, the new majority government will give the country a fool-proof electoral system,' says Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
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