GUWAHATI, April 23: The Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) has urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) for taking measures to count VVPATs (voter verifiable paper audit trails) of at least 20 per cent polling stations in each legislative Assembly constituency (LAC) “in the interest of impartial and transparent counting of votes” on May 2.
According to the existing norm, counting of VVPATs is done for five polling stations in each constituency.
Lauding the peaceful conduct of the recently-concluded three-phase elections in Assam by the ECI, APCC president Ripun Bora, in a letter to the chief election commissioner, stated, “in the interest of impartial and transparent counting of votes, our Congress party urges upon you for passing suitable instruction to all concerned for taking up counting of VVPAT of at least 20 percent polling stations for each LAC instead of counting of VVPAT only for 5 polling stations per LAC.”
He also pointed out that “looting of EVMs, suspicious discovery of EVMs in many places, malfunctioning of EVMs, etc” have taken place during the elections, for which the commission had to issue orders for re-polls in four polling stations under three LACs.
“I sincerely believe that in order to build up confidence in the minds of people and to prevent, if any, manipulation or malfunctioning in case of EVMs, the counting of VVPATs of 20 percent polling stations in each LAC will be a landmark decision in the coming days for strengthening parliamentary democracy and to ensure fault-free counting,” Bora stated in the letter.
Earlier this month, the Opposition party had demanded access to CCTV surveillance across strong rooms to all contesting candidates in the state to curb any misconduct.