Opposition questions Election Commission on need for remote voting machines

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 16

Opposition parties, who attended a meeting organised by the Election Commission (EC) today to demonstrate the functioning of the remote electronic voting machine (RVM), have questioned the poll panel on the need for such a proposal and asked it to address the issue of urban voters’ apathy towards the electoral process.

Address concerns first

No Opposition party wants to see the demonstration of the RVM prototype. First, the question of having such a machine should be settled. Digvijay Singh, congress

Explore other options

There are other ways to increase the participation of voters. How will parties campaign among eligible migrant voters who will use RVMs? Sanjay Singh, AAP

After the meeting, senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh told the media: “No Opposition party wants to see the demonstration of the RVM prototype. First, the question of need to have such a machine should be settled.”

Singh said he felt that there would be no RVM demonstration till there was a consensus on having one. No political party was in favour of seeing the demonstration, he added.

“The idea of RVM is unacceptable to the Opposition parties,” the Congress leader said, adding the EC should first address the concerns about electronic voting machines (EVMs). AAP leader Sanjay Singh, too, questioned the need for RVMs, saying there were other ways to increase the participation of voters. “How will we campaign in different states among eligible migrant voters, who will use RVMs? Therefore, the concept of RVM is unacceptable,” he added. The poll panel had invited representatives of eight national and 57 state parties for a demonstration of an RVM prototype here.

The EC has maintained that RVMs, developed by the Electronics Corporation of India, will be a standalone device not connected to internet.

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