Electronic voting machine & its trial by fire

Tribune News Service

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, April 27

As electronic voting machines (EVMs) survived another test of reliability on Friday, a recall of their journey reveals the Election Commission’s painstaking efforts to employ and nurture the concept that attracted skepticism throughout its four-decade-long journey in the country.

The EVM first appeared in India in May 1982, exactly 42 years ago, when 50 machines were deployed for the mid-term assembly poll in Kerala’s Paravur constituency.

The results were so encouraging that in 1982-83, the EC employed EVMs alongside ballot boxes in the assembly elections across Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Karnataka, Nagaland and Andhra Pradesh.

In fact, the ECI’s annual reports for 1983 and 1984 confirm that political parties of the time preferred EVMs over paper ballots.

ECI records reveal that at the time of inception of the concept, the poll panel had just 196 Bharat Electronics Limited-manufactured EVMs (55 lakh deployed for the 18th LS poll), with plans to introduce the machines nationally.

An adverse Supreme Court order of March 5, 1984, nullifying the election of Sivan Pillai from Paravur, however, pushed back the plan. The court reasoned that Pillai’s election violated the Representation of People’s Act that had no statutory provision for the use of EVMs. The SC said the EVMs could not be introduced in the absence of a law, a gap the government filled five years later by authorising EVM use through a notification on March 15, 1989.

Yet, EVM introduction hung fire on the back of political inaction. The matter resurfaced a decade later in 1999 when late MS Gill as Chief Election Commissioner oversaw the conduct of the 13th General Election that was announced on July 11, 1999, even while the Kargil War was on. The war ended on July 26, 1999, but the election process did not suffer at all, except that the elections were delayed until July.

The poll panel archives reveal that the 13th Lok Sabha elections were the last to be held principally with ballot papers. In the 1999 elections, EVMs were used in 45 Lok Sabha segments across 17 states and UTs.

Later, just when the EC marked its golden jubilee in 2001, the EVM use expanded across all booths in single-phase elections to the assemblies of Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala, Pondicherry and Assam (some booths).

In February 2003, state elections in Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura were entirely held using EVMs. The 2004 LS elections were similarly poised, but the EVM goodwill was not to last long.

After the 2009 Lok Sabha poll results (Congress-led UPA retained power), EVM reliability was questioned by then prime ministerial face of the BJP LK Advani who wanted ballot papers back.

Records show that EC issued its first clarification on EVMs’ trustworthiness on July 5, 2009. Since then, the EVM reliability has been legally challenged and upheld in courts on numerous occasions. The EC’s maiden invitation to political parties to demonstrate that EVMs can be tampered with was extended for August 3 to 8, 2009.

No one could prove any claims. The poll panel, however, took positive note of the suggestions about voter verifiable paper audit trail and VVPATs were first put to field trial at five locations across India, including Ladakh, in July 2011. VVPATs were introduced gradually, but the EVM skeptics kept returning.

In 2017, the EC again threw an open challenge to political parties, now Congress-led Opposition bloc, to demonstrate their allegations of EVM tampering. The results were unsurprising, but the EVM debate continued.

Introduced 42 years ago

• EVMs first appeared on national poll scene in May 1982 in Kerala
• 50 machines were deployed for the mid-term Assembly elections in the Paravur constituency of Kerala
• The ECI’s annual reports for 1983 and 1984 confirm that political parties of the time preferred EVMs over paper ballots
• The poll panel archives reveal that the 13th Lok Sabha elections were the last to be held principally with ballot papers
• After the 2009 Lok Sabha poll results were declared, EVMs’ reliability was questioned by then PM face of the BJP LK Advani who wanted ballot papers back
• Since then, the EVMs’ reliability has been legally challenged and upheld in courts
• on numerous occasions

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