The more things change, the more they stay the same – this appears to be the case with the Opposition INDIA bloc, which called for a return to the ballot votes, rejecting the EVMs or Electronic Voting Machines in the light of recent reports about the internal workings of the Election Commission.
The comments come in the light of an Indian Express report last week that detailed how Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi formally objected on record 14 times over 10 months to decisions and orders related to the SIR process under Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, speaking at the INDIA bloc meet, listed out five demands: pre-SIR rolls to be used for future elections, an effective appeal mechanism before a voter is removed from poll rolls, protection of eligible voters from exlusion caused by administrative failures, voting through ballots, simple and accessible voter registration for first-time voters. Further, it has been provided in that Bill (which has now become an Act) that “notwithstanding other laws, no court could entertain or continue civil or criminal proceedings against a person who was or had been CEC/EC for an act, thing, or word committed, done, or spoken while discharging official duty or function. The first reported use of the EVM was in the Paravur Assembly Constituency of Kerala in the year 1982, the Election Commission website says. Since 1998, the poll body has increasingly used EVMs instead of ballot boxes and by 2003, all state elections and by-elections were held using EVMs. The comments come in the light of an Indian Express report last week that detailed how Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi formally objected on record 14 times over 10 months to decisions and orders related to the SIR process under Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. “Now we know why the PM brought the ‘Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Bill, 2023’, to remove CJI from the selection panel of the Election Commission and instead replaced by a Minister.
The 84-year-old Kharge said across the country “citizens and political parties are raising grave concerns about functioning of the Election Commission”. Thus a blanket immunity for life had been provided to CEC /EC,” Kharge said.
