Election Commission: EVMs error-free, scrutinised rigorously

New Delhi: The Election Commission of India on Wednesday tried to allay concerns over safety of EVMs due to use of VVPATs and said that machines are constantly going through rigorous scrutiny.

It further said that so far not  a single case of mismatch in EVMs and VVPATs has been found.

The EC was responding to a story carried out by this paper in which former IAS officer Kannan Gopinathan had raised serious concerns with regard to sanctity of EVMs due to use of VVPAT machines, saying VVPATs have made EVMs amenable to hacking.

“Mr Kannan Gopinathan, IAS (2012), who resigned recently was district election officer and returning officer in Dadra & Nagar Haveli constituency which has 304 polling stations. It would be recalled that the number of polling stations in 2019 Lok Sabha elections pan-India were around 10.36 lakh. There was no document available where he has at any point of time sent any written analysis on the issue which he is now raising immediately post his resignation,” the EC said.

“In answer to something to this effect in his tweets he said that he raised the issue in some internal meeting. In meetings taken by CEOs several issues are mentioned, as they should be, by the DEOs and ROs. However, there is a difference between anecdotal mentioning of an issue and the mentioning backed by a written report raising any kind of doubts as the issue that he is now suddenly raising immediately after resigning,” the EC added.

“Nonetheless a more rigorous scrutiny even of this is being got done. It would be recalled that 1.25 crore VVPAT slips that were counted and matched with the EVM count, not a single case of transfer of vote from one candidate to another has been found,” the EC clarified.