The Election Commission of India has received 11 requests for memory verification of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trails (VVPAT) from the recently concluded Lok Sabha and Assembly polls. These requests essentially mean rematching the votes polled in 5% of the EVMs in each of these constituencies.
This is the first time that such requests have been received since the Supreme Court order of April 24 allowing verification on the request of the runners-up in any election.
While eight requests were received for the Lok Sabha elections, including three each from the BJP and Congress, three requests were for the Assembly polls, according to a statement from the Election Commission.
Verification requests
Among Lok Sabha constituencies, three applications came from the BJP candidates in Ahmednagar (Maharashtra), Vellore (Tamil Nadu), and Zahirabad (Telangana); three came from the Congress candidates in Kanker (Chhattisgarh), Faridabad (Haryana), and Karnal (Haryana); and one each from the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) candidate in Virudhunagar (Tamil Nadu) and the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) candidate from Vizianagaram (Andhra Pradesh).
Two of the Assembly poll requests for verification came from Biju Janata Dal candidates in Odisha, while one came from a YSRCP candidate in Andhra Pradesh.
Developing SOPs
Following the Supreme Court’s April order, the ECI had issued a detailed Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the application process on June 1. According to this, the checking and verification process can be initiated by State Chief Electoral Officers within four weeks of the verification of status of the election petitions filed in the respective constituencies by the Registrars of the respective High Courts.
For the current election cycle, the deadline to file the petition is July 19, that is, 45 days from the date of declaration of results.
“The technical Standard Operating Procedure enumerating the methodology and steps for checking and verification of burnt memory/microcontroller of EVM units will be issued by the Commission in due course before the end of election petition period,” the ECI said.
