The Wire: New Delhi: Thursday, December 07, 2017.
The response
by the Election Commission (EC) and two electronic voting machine (EVM)
manufacturers Electronics Corporation of India Limited and Bharat Electronics
Limited to an Right to Information (RTI) query relating to a petition filed
following the Uttarakhand polls has revealed administrative and security
protocol violations as several machines were apparently handled by unqualified
staff.
The RTI
responses have also revealed divergence in EC and Electronics Corporation of
India Limited (ECIL) data on number of ballot units and control units that have
been manufactured over the year. Further, it has indicated that proper records
on disposal of the EVMs were not available.
Additionally,
while 70 cases of thefts and loot of EVMs have been reported, no convictions
have happened so far. Incidentally, all these cases were reported from states
which are now under BJP rule.
This assumes
significance since various parties have alleged EVM tampering in the assembly
elections to five states held earlier this year and civic body elections held
in Uttar Pradesh recently.
The petition
was filed in April by former Uttarakhand minister and Congress candidate from
Vikas Nagar constitutency, Nav Prabhat, against the winning candidate of BJP,
Munna Singh Chauhan, before Justice Sarvesh Kumar Gupta of the Nainital high
court under Section 80A of The Representation of People’s Act 1951, alleging
irregularities in electoral practices during the assembly elections held
earlier this year.
On receiving
of the complaint, the court had ordered the seizure of EVMs used in the
constituency, which were then taken into judicial custody. As Congress
candidates of six other constituencies Mussorie, Rajpur, Raipur (Dehradun),
BHEL Rampur Hardwar, Pratap Nagar and Hardwar Rural also lodged similar
complaints, they too were clubbed with the original application and the EVMs
from these constituencies too were seized on court orders.
Prabhat said
the issue at hand was the blatant flouting of security protocols of the EC.
“There is a clear instruction that for 45 days after counting of votes, the
EVMs should not be moved out but in the case of Vikas Nagar and some other
constituencies their EVMs were moved from Maharana Pratap Statium in Dehradun
to District Collectorate compound just a day after the counting.” Similarly, he
said, such movements took place in 13 other districts.
Even when the
EC summoned EVMs from states that had gone to polls for the ‘EVM challenge‘ in
June this year, he said the EVMs which were brought from Chakrata and Dehradun
Cantonment constituencies in Uttarakhand were found in Delhi by Congress
workers with their locks broken. Subsequently, a complaint was lodged and the
state election commission had ordered a probe.
But more importantly,
the petition filed by the Congress candidate has through RTI replies raised
more important issues about adherence to the administrative and security
protocol laid down for EVM use.
Violation
of administrative and security protocol
The petitioner
said when he filed a query under the RTI Act with the ECIL about the number of
personnel deployed by it for the elections in Uttarakhand, he was told by ECIL
on that eight regular employees were posted by it in Uttarakhand for the
assembly elections 2017.
While ECIL
had stated on July 31 that “on behalf of ECIL eight regular employees were
posted in Uttarakhand” for the assembly elections and that the corporation was
there to “provided technical support” as directed by the EC, the petitioner had
claimed that the number of personnel disclosed by the state election commission
was much higher at 70.
Furthermore,
the petition had stated that while ECIL had stated that “for any elections
conducted through EVMs supplied by ECIL, then only technical personnel from
ECIL will be involved”, to carry out “first level check, commissioning and
electioning (sic)”, the petition charged that most of the personnel deployed as
per the election office reply was not qualified for the job. In fact, the
petition said none of the eight ECIL personnel were deployed for the first
level checks. So who carried them out?
The petition
has noted that ECIL’s response was in sharp contrast to its earlier letter in
which it had submitted that 71 personnel would be deployed for “sealing,
distribution and polling” through EVMs in the state. But these included people
from virtually all walks of life such as car dealers, personnel from child care
services, a shoe store owner, a doctor, train service operator, mobile
operator, marketing agents and even librarians and hotel and accommodation
staff.
Based on the
response received from the district electoral officers after his plea on the
number of personnel deployed was referred by the chief electoral officer to
them, the petitioner charged that several unauthorised persons were involved in
the first level check and other technical work of EVM use which was in “brazen
violation of the administrative and security protocol mandated by the Election
Commission”.
Mismatch
in ECIL and EC data on EVMs
The petition
has also revealed that there was a big mismatch between the number of EVMs that
were manufactured by ECIL and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and those
actually procured by the EC.
In fact,
while the EC had in response to an RTI query stated on May 29 that 10,05,662
ballot units (BU) and 9,28,049 control units (CU) were manufactured by BEL
under Ministry of Defence and 10,14,644 BUs and 9,34,031 CUs were manufactured
by ECIL under the Department of Atomic Energy, the petitioner has stated that
this figure does not tally with the information provided by ECIL.
He said the
ECIL has responded saying that it had manufactured 13,70,391 BUs and 11,31,399
CUs. So, in fact, it had manufactured 1,97,368 more units of CUs and 3,55,747
more units of BUs than those disclosed by the EC.
‘What is
happening with the extra machines?’
What is
worrisome, the petitioner said, is that the EC does not have certain and clear
data on disposal of EVMs and so no one knows for sure if they are being
misused. “They had only replied that they had only disposed off EVMs of 1989-90
batch in 2013 and a sum of Rs 35 lakh was spent on that exercise. But they did
not provide any proof of this or submitted any supporting data. Also they have
not provided any details of their e-waste disposal. The RTI responses have also
established the number of EVMs exported to Nepal, Bhutan and Namibia runs into
a few thousand only. So clearly the question is what is happening with the
extra machines?”
EVMs
stolen, robbed in only states under BJP rule
The RTI
response from the EC has also established that in the past few years, EVMs have
been stolen or robbed only in the states that are under BJP rule now – namely
Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Assam.
The petition
had charged that surprisingly, in all 70 cases in which EVMs were stolen or
looted, the accused were let off scot free while the authorities had claimed
their conviction. Based on the response received from the EC to its query filed
on April 10, it had further stated that no fixed procedure or protocol was
adopted in cases of loot, theft or loss of EVMs.
Moreover, it
had observed that “all court cases, where EVMs were looted/stolen, were put to
trial as per normal theft/loot cases” and “not as special category cases”.
To top it,
the petition had pointed that that “till date no one is convicted in any EVM
theft/loot case as per records furnished by the Election Commission of India”.
In view of
the urgency of the matter, the petitioner has sought day-to-day hearing in the
matter, which is due to next come up for hearing on December 27.
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