Demand for display of votes polled

Hyderabad: Six contesting candidates from Karwan constituency are demanding that there be a digital display of votes polled. They submitted a representation to Regional Officer and to the District Election Officer. One of them, Dr Lubna Sarwath, Socialist Party (India), says that on December 2 mock polling they observed that there was a glitch after the control unit displayed individually Sl.no. of the candidate, and, number of votes polled. “The crucial stage of counting is kept manual. Is this by design? Is it possible that this connectivity of digitalisation from votes polled on EVMs until all the counting is done did not strike the proponents of EVMs and VVPATs and was not thought over?” she asked.

When asked for digital display and print of the summary of a number of votes polled for each candidate, the officials told the candidates that counting officials would enter the figures manually on a sheet and the counting agents would be a proof/counter check to the authenticity of the counting officials counting work. “We do not understand how the handheld device and a 2x6 inch screen of control unit would be visible to all counting agents, and why the visibility should not be displayed on the wide screen with an entire summary of the polling station. When asked officials did not even have clarity on the type of format that counting officials would have to manually sum up the votes,” Lubna said.

The 6 contesting candidates seek summary of: 1. Sl no.of candidate; 2. Number of votes polled; 3. Name of candidate; 4. Symbol of candidate; and, 5. photo of candidate. They demand that all these be displayed digitally from the control unit in a tabular form on a widescreen, to avoid any human intervention and any discrepancy. These arrangements should be done immediately to be readied by 11th when the counting begins. Syed Raheemuddin, BSP candidate, said, “crores of public money have been spent on EVMs, VVPATs, but it seems to be a failure, because, towards the critical counting of polls, we are again relying on alacrity of counting officials and on cross-check of counting agents. If counting agents and polling agents of political parties are so much to be relied upon then why did we shift from ballot boxes to EVMs at all?”

Ramesh, Shiv Sena candidate, questioned the objective of EVMs/VVPATs and asked why it was kept manual at the counting stage. The other candidates who concurred with these views are: P Ravi Kumar, Independent; Syed Aman, Loktantrik Samaj Party; and Ramesh, Shiv Sena.