New Delhi: Before the first phase of voting in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections started on 19 April, many users on various social media platforms claimed that 1.9 million Electronic Voting Machines have gone “missing” under a conspiracy to influence election results.
Vishvas News found in its investigation that this claim is false. The Election Commission has called it fake. In March this year, the Supreme Court also dismissed the claims of missing EVMs.
Investigation:
Based on the claims made in the viral post, we found several news reports on the issue. According to a report by The Economic Times on March 15, “The Supreme Court dismissed the petition on Friday, which alleged the disappearance of 1.9 million EVMs under the supervision of the Election Commission between 2016 and 2019, to influence the Lok Sabha election results.”
The report further states, “The INC had claimed in its plea that 1.9 million EVMs had gone ‘missing’, which the Supreme Court deemed ‘completely unsubstantiated’ and dismissed.”
Reports of ‘missing’ EVMs had emerged even in 2019. Frontline and TV9 Bharatvarsh had published reports on this, upon which the Election Commission had clarified through a tweet that the reports were baseless.
Regarding the story https://t.co/VzxlkMebno & news reports,it is clarified that there is no truth in contention that "20 lakh EVMs are missing". The news report is based on inaccurate & specious misinterpretation of partial facts obtained frm RTI frm multiple Public Authorities
— Spokesperson ECI (@SpokespersonECI) May 9, 2019
The Election Commission recently issued a clarification, after the Supreme Court’s decision, to debunk the fake claim.
The world’s largest democracy’s General Elections are here! #LokSabhaElections2024
Check out the phase wise schedule of General Elections to Lok Sabha #Elections2024.👇✨#ElectionCommission #electiondate #ChunavKaParv #DeshKaGarv pic.twitter.com/Vwoyjm3dcu
— Election Commission of India (@ECISVEEP) March 16, 2024
The issue is also mentioned in the FAQ section on the Election Commission’s website. We contacted officials of the Election Commission regarding the viral claim. They said that clarification has been issued on this matter on their official social media handles and website.
Conclusion:
The claim of 1.9 million EVMs being “missing” before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, purportedly to influence the results, is fake.
This story was originally published by Vishvas News, as part of the Shakti Collective. Except for the headline, excerpt and introduction para, this story has not been edited by ThePrint staff.
This report titled “fact check” would have been credible if the allegations were countered with facts. But the only counters I see are statements from the EC and SC. But no substantive points about the numbers of EVNs actually manufactured and actually then possession of by the ECI.