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HomePoliticsStatistical body says opposition demand for 50% VVPAT verification not 'sound'

Statistical body says opposition demand for 50% VVPAT verification not ‘sound’

The Indian Statistical Insititute advises EC that for representative sample, 50% verification not needed. Poll panel to frame response to SC based on input.

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New Delhi: The Indian Statistical Insititute has advised the Election Commission against having a fixed percentage tally of VVPAT slip verification — a key demand of opposition parties in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls, ThePrint has learned.

The ISI presented its report on the sample size of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slip counting to the EC Friday, which the poll body is now examining.

“In order to come up with a representative sample, you do not need the sample of a certain proportion of the population,” an ISI official told ThePrint. “That is not statistically sound… The demand to have 50 per cent tally of VVPAT slips is particularly ridiculous.”

The EC is expected to frame its response to the Supreme Court on the basis of the ISI report. The court had sought the commission’s response on a plea filed by opposition leaders in the matter.


Also read: Supreme Court asks EC to respond to Opposition demanding counting of VVPAT slips


Tally to ensure EVMs are not tampered: Opposition

The opposition wants the court to ensure that the EC tallies 50 per cent of the VVPAT slips with their corresponding votes in the EVMs in each constituency before the Lok Sabha election results are declared.

According to the current practice, VVPAT slips in one polling station in each constituency are tallied with the EVM results.

Since this amounts to “less than 0.44 per cent of EVMs in the country”, this formula is “completely ineffective and merely ornamental in nature”, the opposition has said in its plea.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna has listed the plea for 25 March.

Both the EC and ISI, however, believe the opposition demand is not statistically sound.


Also read: Over 20 opposition parties move SC seeking vote verification for Lok Sabha polls


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8 COMMENTS

  1. This is not about statistics at all, this is about DOUBTED HUMAN INTERFERENCE. Whoever has invited these statistical experts has dubious intentions. These experts themselves should have pointed out the obvious fact stated above, and should have excused themselves rather than “misusing” their above-board image to further misleading suggestions.

    Because of Suspected human interference in the poll process, as many VVPT slips should be counted in EACH POLLING BOOTH as possible. There can be 10s or 100s of polling booths for each loksabha seat. To count a few VVPAT slips in only one of polling booths will be a joke.

  2. I am at one with the views expressed by Mr. Vedant and Mr. Singh. I have worked both as a booth agent of a political party and as a presiding officer in an election booth. My experience tells me that there can be no single representative polling booth to extrapolate the findings to an entire constituency. Similarly a tiny percentage of polling booths most probably give a false satisfaction of securing verifiability of the system since in caste divided society on which our politics is presently based, the choice of candidates widely differ from booth to booth in Hindi heartland and in cosmopolitan cities it differs based on education and income levels. Moreover the political parties indulging in machine level manipulation can easily defeat such verification process through wider distribution of such manipulation by small numbers so as to make any finding about such a booth to be considered as insignificant. In any case, I fail to understand that when almost the entire political spectrum of the country barring the ruling dispensation (interestingly they had also in the past made such demands while being in the opposition), who are the actual stakeholders of the election process, have been demanding a manual verification of the electronic process, why should the EC, that is merely a facilitator for conducting the process in conformity with the laid down principles of neutrality and fairness, be an obstacle to such demand and invite derogatory comments towards a constitutional body.

  3. This is not an academic exercise or correlation with “p” values. It is question if establishing credibility of system and restoring the confidence of citizens
    The mother code is with foreigners and the machines are provided by foreign companies and it is an electronic device
    In the past we had seen whichever button is pressed ,the ballot was cast in favour of particular party. EC may confirm whether this is true or not. Please don’t try to erase the evidence

  4. I agree with ISI.
    If 50% of the VVPAT slips are to be counted, it’s almost that we are back to ballot paper counting.
    And it’s difficult to count VVPAT slips. They are small sized, ink fades fast and can blow away.
    We might as well move back to ballot papers then!

  5. The question is never about technology or evidence, the question is about why BJP is defeating the so called natural parties of governance aka Congress and its clones

  6. While this remarkable and ludicrous debate goes on, does anyone have the time to ask EC a simple question –

    So what exactly is the problem if VVPAT tallying is performed for more than 50% booths? Is it a crime by any chance?

    We can have an election spread over 8 phases and 2 months but EC would like to avoid spending 2 additional days required for VVPAT tallying? This is no EC. It’s a glorified back office of the richest political party.

  7. The sheer drama on this subject of “How Not To have higher number of VVPAT tallying” is remarkable.

    Assuming a candidate has the wherewithal to manipulate EVM, does he or she really need to do it for all polling booths in a constituency to win the election or at least increase the odds in his favor? Also when seen at a larger level, state or national, such manipulation performed in select constituencies with tight races, and there too in limited number of polling booths may be enough to tilt the scales in favor of the manipulator party or parties.

    Where does statistics or probability theory come in here? The only thing ongoing debate shows is that all relevant guardian institutions of India Democracy have been completely compromised. EC specifically needs someone of the temperament and caliber of Shri TN Sheshan. However the power troika will avoid recent CBI like scenario and ensure that this doesn’t come to pass.

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