The assembly elections in Gujarat, expected to be held in November-December this year, could be the first polls in the country to be conducted entirely with the use of verifiable paper trail of the votes cast.
The Election Commission, through an affidavit, informed the Supreme Court on Wednesday that it was likely to have, by September, the requisite number of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) units required to conduct the assembly elections in Gujarat, entirely with the use of paper trail.
The EC currently has 53,500 VVPAT units, whereas the requirement for the Gujarat elections would be 70,000 units. The commission informed the court that it is expected to receive the delivery of 48,000 VVPAT units from Bharat Electronics Limited and Electronics Corporation of India Limited by August 31, and another 25,000 units in September.
“If the said consignment of VVPATs is delivered on time as expected, the Election Commission of India would be in a position to conduct the elections to the Gujarat legislative assembly entirely with the use of VVPATs,” the commission said in the affidavit.
The affidavit was in response to a petition filed by Reshma Vithalbhai Patel who contended that the commission has not complied with the directions of the court with regard to the implementation of paper trail in elections and that there is a “delay in deployment of VVPAT units” for which the EC was responsible.
The petitioner also sought directive by the apex court to the EC to use VVPAT in the coming assembly elections. Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party, which has alleged that the EVMs used in the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh were tampered with and has been demanding implementation of VVPAT, is also a petitioner in the case.
The court, in the previous hearing on July 9, stated that the commission appeared to not want to use paper trail in elections. The EC explained in the affidavit about how it had time and again asked the government for the required funds to implement VVPAT and was waiting for the same to be sanctioned.
Taking objection to the contention, the commission pointed out that the petitioner, instead of making a representation to it, chose to directly approach the court, thereby wasting precious judicial time.
VVPAT, or paper trail of the votes cast can be used to cross check the results. There has been a growing demand for use of VVPAT as doubts are being expressed about the integrity of EVMs.
