By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The former Deputy Chief Minister and UDP leader Bindo M Lanong who lost the last Assembly elections by a huge margin has alleged that the electronic voting machines were tampered with in the last elections.
Addressing a press conference here on Monday, Bindo M Lanong said, “We are sure of the information that there was selected hacking in the last assembly elections.”
While giving a clean chit to the Election Commission of India, the former MLA accused the company who had supplied the EVMs and the technicians of hacking the machines.
“Hacking was done in 15-17 constituencies,” Lanong told reporters.
While refusing to name any political party for the alleged rigging, he expressed surprise over the performance of the Congress who secured 29 seats at a time when their internal contestations were at the fore.
The UDP leader also demanded that the Election Commission of India should revert back to the old paper ballot as it is had greater accuracy.
According to Lanong, several parties of the North East including Congress too had expressed their strong reservations against the use of EVMs when the Parliamentary Standing Committee under the chairmanship of Shantaram Naik had visited Shillong to discuss about the transparency of EVMs.
The UDP has also shot off an official communiqué to the Election Commission of India to revert back to the use of traditional ballot box during the elections in order to prevent such happenings.
The UDP leader is unhappy with the fact that many of the EVMs mal-functioned in the last Assembly elections.
The UDP has also decided to adopt the wait and watch policy with regards to the recent decision of the State Government o use EVMs in District Council elections due early next year.
