DU claims it has been using the machines since 2009, six of them malfunctioned during counting of votes in Thursday’s DUSU polls.
New Delhi: The Election Commission has clarified that the Delhi University had purchased the EVMs, which had developed technical glitches during the recent student union polls, from an authorised agency in the year 2008.
It has also said that DU had obtained a no-objection certificate from the commission in 2006, before purchasing the voting machines.
The machines were purchased from the Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL), a government enterprise under the Department of Atomic Energy, and the university has been using them consistently since 2009.
At least six of these EVMs had developed glitches during the counting of votes in the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) elections Thursday, forcing the DU authorities to suspend the counting for nearly three hours.
The incident sparked a controversy following which the Election Commission Thursday evening said that the defective EVMs were not issued by ECI.
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Opposition parties demanded that an investigation be conducted into how the university got these machines. The Congress had asked for a re-election. Congress leader Ajay Maken said, “If there can be malfunctioning of EVMs in university elections, they can definitely do it during general elections as well.”
“The DUSU polls should be countermanded and fresh polls should be conducted on paper ballot,” he added.
The Aam Aadmi Party questioned the whole legal basis of procuring EVMs from a “private body” without ECs intervention. “From where can u procure EVMs privately? Doesn’t ECI claim that no one can manufacture or buy or sell EVMs privately? Isn’t anyone found in possession of EVMs without EC’s permission guilty of criminal offence?” Delhi chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted Friday.
As per the NOC given to university by EC in the year 2006, the commission agreed that the machines will be “perceptibly distinct” and a colour distinction should be made by the companies. The commission also said that the design, colour and model of such EVMs should be different from the ones supplied to ECI for purposes of general, assembly and other major elections.
The commission clarified that it uses only “single post” EVMs, which means that one can cast vote for only one post. In the DUSU elections, multi-post EVMs, on which one can vote for multiple posts such as president, vice-president and general Secretary, were used.
“The commission would like to state that the important technical and administrative safeguards available in ECI-EVMs might not be available in EVMs being used by other organisations/institutions,” read a statement issued by the commission.
“We would like to clarify once again…that ECI is not responsible for the conduct of local body elections (municipalities, panchayats, etc.) that are conducted by the State Election Commissions and elections held by various organisations/institutions in the country and consequently about various protocols and procedures adopted by them,” the EC said in the statement.
According to sources in the university, DU has been giving the EVMs for use to other bodies as well. The Bar Association in Delhi, for instance, has conducted elections using EVMs from the university.
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“We have been using EVMs since 2009 and there has been no issue whatsoever so far. Every year before the elections, engineers from ECIL will fix the machines and set them to our requirements,” said a DU official.
“Our EVMs have also been used by other agencies outside the university,” the official added.