Democracy is intended to reduce the influence money & power weilds in choosing Government & policy making. So democracy hands this power entirely to the people thru votes. One citizen, one vote. Whether he lives in a shanty in Dharavi or in Antilla. And the people choose...1/n

..This selection of the Governors as representatives of the people is the most significant and sacred part of any democracy. If this process is compromised there is no democracy left.

The EC which is the one and only institution charged with this role together with the..2/n

..judiciary esp the Supreme Court. They are the two arms reqd to ensure that the sacred process of elections is free, fair and devoid of tampering or manipulations.

To ensure that elections are free is the job of the EC alone. Not of the candidates, political parties,...3/n

..activists etc. EC has the power to determine the entire process end to end without interference from anyone in the Government.  We saw this in action during the time Mr TN Sheshan.

Of course this doesn't mean the other actors in the process can be dishonest. Elections..4/n

..should be a honest process on the part of the citizen, candidates/political parties and the other conductors of the election too.

However, nowadays this people  power appears to be slipping out if the hands of the people.

Its not as if voting frauds were not happening..5/n

..earlier. There was booth capturing, impersonation,  money for votes etc. These were aberrations and only in  small pockets. Largely, the elections were free and fair and the outcomes were believable. Those were the days of physical votes in the form of ballot papers. ..6/n

For anything to be conducted fairly, whats needed is transparency. In physical ballot paper, this was 100% possible. How? The voters stamp the physical paper & this paper remains  as proof and provides an audit trail for verification at any time later. Unless the paper is..7/n

..destroyed. We must remember there are rules for ballot paper retention.

In elections, its not the speed of announcing results thats important but the integrity and accuracy. If speed was important, the EC should not spread the elections in one state over several phases...8/n

..and over weeks. Tbats hardly speed. The argument of speed is obviously specious.

In the recent Presudential elections in the USA, we saw how important the integrity of the election process is over speed.

After the introduction of the electronic vote through EVMs, the..9/n

..physical nature of the voting and the clear transparency & audit trail got lost. EVMs were used for the 1st time in 1982 for Parur assembly Constitution in Kerala. In the EVM, everything is controlled by software. The votes wr digital with no physical record of how many..10/n

..votes in the aggregate and how many votes polled for each candidate. This can hardly be counted as transparency or for that matter free and fair. Especially when it can't be verified.

Also the prevailing law at that time, did not authorise the use of EVMs. The Congress..11/n

..candidate AC Jose moved the Supreme Court challenging the use of EVMs by the EC without an enabling law after he lost. The Court ruled in his favour. It was in Dec1988 the People's Representation Act was amended to enable EC to use EVMs.

Since then EVMs have started..12/n

..replacing the ballot paper. Even then, the most important aspect of the conduct of election was absent that was the audit trail.

This aspect was challenged in Courts. The Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court ruled in 2011 that a paper trail shpuld confirm the..13/n

..reliablility of EVMs must be introduced. Thats when VVPAT was developed and started being introduced in 2012/2013. The system was tried on a pilot basis in the 2014 Indian general electn EVMs.
But unfortunately this was not 100%. Initially the VVPAT m/cs were introduced...14/n

..to cover only 1% of the EVMs. Later it was expanded to 5%. There were petitions filed in Supreme Court seeks verification of at least 50% of the Votes polled through VVPAT slips. Despite many prominent people like Swami Agnivesh  appealing for verification of 50% EVM%,..15/n

..this was not acceded to.

In another plea, it was  suggested that the  VVPAT slips should be printed and handed over to the voter instantly so as to make the process fool proof and provides assurance to all including the voter. Even this was not acceded to.

Insofar as..16/n

..VVPATs are concerned, the lingering doubts over the polling in EVMs & possible manipulations in either the EVMs or the VVPAT machines thru the software continue.
Essentially because the software is non transparent. What was built into the software and what it did exactly..17/n

..isn't visible or verifiable. It is a black-box. Most importantly, the software code was not offered to scrutiny for audit about its integrity.

Precisely this is what a by a Mumbai based activist Mr Ahya sought in a plea before the Supreme Court. His plea was to make the..18/n

..EC allow the audit/review of the EVM/VVPAT software in accordance with international practice. To check if there are control gaps and vulnerabilities which compromise the system. This was denied in Apr 2019 by the SC in a judgement presided by the then CJI Ranjan Gogoi...19/n

However, the Court directed that 5 VVPATs in every place.

There are serious doubts about the EVMs. There were mismatches between the votes cast and the VVPAT counts, in many cases the VVPAT slips were destroyed before the stipulated time enabling verification,  in many...20/n

..cases, not even one vote was cast. It would be absurd to say even tje candidate didnt vote for himself/herself. Aoart from this there is no 100% transparency thru verification. Actually not even 50% verification. The software is not permitted to be audited. So how to..21/n

..trust the correctness? Elections are not a matter which is to be accepted on trust. Its a matter of clear transparency.  If trust was the basis,  no need for the any Elections at all.

These doubts are further conpunded by the fact that money enters through anonymous..22/n

..electoral bonds. So it seems  power of people is being taken away in a coalition where people in power the & people with money cone together to fool the Indians.

Ideally we should revert to ballot paper which assures 100% verification. If this is not possible there..23/n

..should be :

1. 100% verification of the VVPAT slips with votes.
2. Every voter should be handed over the VVPAT slip printout to ensure votes are verifiable. If they are not handed over, it should be punishable as a crime...24/n

..3. Selection for verification of VVPAT slips with votes should be done by the losing candidate with the 2nd highest no of votes. It should not be by the EC...25/25

Apologies for the innumerable spelling error. Mostly a combination of impatience and mischievous autocorrections.