The Election Commission of India on Wednesday rejected the demands of Opposition parties regarding VVPAT-EVM verification. The Poll Commission of India is expected to release a detailed statement over the Issue.
Election Commission rejects demands of opposition parties' regarding VVPAT. More details awaited pic.twitter.com/zyxETDjWOE
— ANI (@ANI) May 22, 2019
A delegation of 21 opposition parties led by Telugu Desam Party President N Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday knocked the Election Commission with a demand to verify 100% VVPAT slips with EVMs in case a mismatch is found during counting from any assembly segment. The Opposition parties also demanded that the verification of VVPAT Slips should be done at the beginning of the counting process.
A High-level Delegation including Congress Leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal among others met the ECI Officials and submitted a memorandum.
READ: 21 Opposition parties led by N Chandrababu Naidu meet EC over VVPAT-EVM Verification Issue
Speaking to media after meeting the ECI in the national capital, Congress Leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said, ‘We raised these same issues in last 1.5 months. We asked the Poll Commission why have they not responded to our concern yet. Strangely, EC heard us for almost an hour and they assured us that they will meet again tomorrow morning to consider primarily these 2 issues.’
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister also said that Former President Pranab Mukherjee also said that EC should make the process transparent and should create among voters. Asserting that the Poll Body has a problem with our demand, TDP Boss said that we have repeatedly met the EC over the issue but it seems like EC has a problem with our demand.
It should be noted that the Top Court had on May 7 declined to increase the count for the verification of voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) slips with EVM from 5 to at least 50% in the ongoing national elections 2019.
Earlier hearing the petition filed by Opposition parties, the Highest Court had on April 8 directed the Election Commission to increase the number of VVPAT Verification from one to five in each assembly segment. Earlier only one VVPAT was cross-checked with EVM.
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