The Hindu : New Delhi News : Voters miss the EVMs

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jun 28, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Voters miss the EVMs

By Lalit K. Jha

A mother and daughter casting vote for the MCD by-elections in the Capital on Sunday. Photo: Sandeep Saxena

NEW DELHI, JUNE 27. Having got a taste of the electronic voting machines during the recently concluded Delhi Assembly elections and the Lok Sabha polls, electorates of the six municipal Wards, where by-elections were held today were taken aback when they came out of their homes to exercise their franchise. The reason -- they found the good old ballot papers back again for voting.

"Where are those EVMs? Why are'nt you using those machines? Has the Government changed its policy?" were the several intriguing questions asked by voters inside the polling booths and the polling agents of political parties outside the booth when they came out after casting their vote. "It is only today that we came to know how popular the EVMs have become among the voters. Even the illiterate voters from slum clusters inquired about the EVMs and said the machines with push buttons were much better and easier than the ballot papers," said a Presiding Officer at a Wazirabad polling booth in Timarpur Ward.

"I fail to understand why the (State) Election Commission has resorted to old system of ballot papers and ballot boxes. We are now accustomed to the EVMs. This (ballot paper) is a very unfriendly system," said Anuj Sinha at a polling booth at Nehru Vihar. Another elector, Somdatt Sharma at Keshav Puram complained that resorting to traditional ballot papers and boxes was anti-environment. "The Commission needs to give an explanation as to why such a measure was taken," he said.

Interestingly, even though the necessary amendments for the use of EVMs were carried out in 2003 in both the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act (1957) and the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Election of Councillors) Rules (1970), the EVMs could not be used because the funds required for its purchase was not released by the Delhi Government.

Further the request made by the State Election Commission to the Election Commission of India for lending out EVMs on rent for the municipal bye-elections was turned down as the existing regulations of the EC rules that the electronic voting machines could be used only for the Parliamentary and Assembly elections. "These EVMs cannot be used for the local civic body polls," a senior official said.

On the other hand, officials in the Delhi Government argued that it was unpractical and uneconomical to invest more than Rs. 8 crores for purchase of EVMs for the local body elections which are held only once in five years. "Except for this, what is the use of the EVMs?" the official asked, adding: "After we purchase them, they would remain idle."

While the Delhi Assembly elections in December 2003 and Lok Sabha polls in the Capital in May cost the Government exchequer less than Rs. 9 crores, the by-elections to only six seats is estimated to have burdened the State treasury by more than Rs. 1.2 crore because of the use of ballot papers. "In other words, while conducting elections through EVMs cost nearly Rs. 6.4 lakhs per Ward, through ballot papers it costs us between 20 lakhs and Rs. 22 lakhs: a jump of more than three times," said an official from the State Election Commission.

Stating that the arguments of both the Delhi Government and the Election Commission of India were valid, the official observed that there was need for creating a common pool of EVMs that could be used for local body elections across the country. "When the University of Delhi can use EVMs for their elections, why should they not be used when it comes to local body elections?" he asked.

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