UP poll body urges EC to give new EVMs or allow paper ballot

NEW DELHI: The State Election Commission on Thursday urged the Election Commission to allow it to hold elections to the posts of mayor and corporators of various civic bodies in Uttar Pradesh using the traditional paper ballots if it could not provide EVMs in "good working condition". "I had a word with Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi and requested him that the EC must provide latest EVMs which are in good working condition. Else, it should allow us to conduct the urban local bodies polls using paper ballots," State Election Commissioner SK Agarwal said. During the 2012 elections to the urban local bodies, the EVMs provided by the EC were made in 2006 and were not suited as per the requirements, he added. The poll process for the urban local bodies across the state will have to be completed by the second week of July, Agarwal said, adding that the State Election Commission was currently working on delimitation of wards on a war footing. Some political parties, including the Congress, have raised the issue of reliability of EVMs in the aftermath of recently-held Assembly elections in five states, including Uttar Pradesh. Election Commission's open challenge The EC on Wednesday threw an "open challenge" to people to hack its EVMs, a move which comes after opposition parties urged it to revert to the paper ballot system raising doubts over infallibility of the machines. "From first week of May, experts, scientists, technocrats can come for a week or 10 days and try to hack the machines," an official source said. They said the challenge will be open for a week or 10 days and will have various levels. The Commission had announced a similar challenge in 2009 and it claimed no one could hack its electronic voting machines (EVMs). Opposition parties urged EC to revert to paper ballots Sixteen opposition parties on Monday urged the Election Commission to revert to the paper ballot system in future elections saying tampering allegations have created "trust deficit" on the reliability of the voting machines. The parties had slammed the Centre for failing to provide funds to the Commission to put in place sufficient number of voter verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. "We are not blaming the EC. EC feels EVMs are tamper-proof. Even Pentagon is not fool-proof. We have urged the Commission to revert to paper ballot system till the reliability of EVMs is proven beyond doubt by all stakeholders," senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal had said. The parties said that there is a consensus among the political parties on the mode of conduct of elections, "which for the present, is against the EVMs and in favour of reverting to the original practice of voting by paper ballot". They reminded the Commission that the issue of "widespread allegations" about the tampering of EVM machines in the recently-held assembly elections have been raised by almost all opposition parties in Parliament. The delegation told the three Commissioners that the recent allegations of tampering of EVMs in Ater of Bhind district in Madhya Pradesh "to suit BJP further lend credence to this apprehension of the opposition parties". They said similar allegations of EVM tampering have been reported in the Maharashtra local body elections -- BMC elections (Mumbai), Municipal Corporations of Pune, Nashik and Amravati.