Opposition demands verification of at least 50% VVPATs

19 Mar 2019

Opposition demands verification of at least 50% VVPATs

23 opposition parties have together demanded the random verification of at least 50% of EVMs and VVPATs in every Assembly constituency for the oncoming general elections.

According to the previous Election Commission guidelines, the VVPAT process was to be conducted only for one randomly selected polling station.
 	But opposition parties have argued that free and fair elections are a part of the basic structure of the Indian Constitution. Such steps will increase voter confidence and make the electoral process transparent.
 	A supreme court bench, led by the Chief Justice of India (topmost judge in India) has issued a notice to the Election Commission (EC) based on the plea by the parties.

EVM and VVPAT (Electronic Voting Machine and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail):

An EVM is a machine used for casting and counting votes by electronic means.
 	It has two parts, the control unit, and a balloting unit.
 	A voter only sees the balloting unit. It has a list of candidate-names (with their party-symbols) and a blue button next to each name. The voter presses the blue button next to his chosen candidate’s name to vote for him.

However, the EVM has no provision for voters to verify if their vote went to the correct candidate. The VVPAT was introduced to solve this problem.
 	When a VVPAT is attached to the EVM, for a short 7 seconds, voters can see a printed slip that shows the serial number, name, and symbol of their chosen candidate.
 	Opposition parties state this is an important step for voters other than casting their vote.

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23 opposition parties have together demanded the random verification of at least 50% of EVMs and VVPATs in every Assembly constituency for the oncoming general elections. […]

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