BJP’s Lotus Symbol Registers Two Votes During Mock Polls In Kasaragod
The Election Commission has denied the news report regarding the extra votes recorded in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) for Bharatiya Janata Party in Kasaragod district of Kerala. Responding to the recent Supreme Court order to look into the matter, Election commission official said, “News reported is totally false”.
During a mock polling held in Kasaragod, at least four of the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) registered extra votes in favour of BJP. The mock poll was held on Wednesday, April 17. A complaint has been filed by LDF and UDF candidates with District Collector Inbasekar K pointing out the errors.
When a vote is cast for BJP, the VVPAT registers it as two, alleged the opposition candidates. If no votes are cast for the saffron party, VVPAT registers it as one vote, reports Madhyamam.
UDF Candidate Rajmohan Unnithan’s agent Muhammed Naser Cherkalam Abdullah has urged the assistant returning officer (ARO) in Kasaragod Lok Sabha constituency to change the erring machines. He further alleged that the Congress ‘hand’ symbol is smaller than other symbols on the voting machines and asked the officials to change it. The officials tested 20 machines at a time. BJP’s MLA Ashwini is the NDA candidate in Kasaragod.
Each VVPAT contains 10 points and BJP’s lotus is the first option. All 190 EVMs were tested by casting vote. When all 10 options on the EVMs were pressed one time each, the VVPAT gave two votes to the BJP in four machines.
But when BJP’s symbol was not pressed, the same four erroneous VVPATs gave one vote to the party. “When we raised the issue, the assistant returning Officer said the VVPAT slips with erroneous votes had the message “not to be counted”,” said Unnithan”s election agent.
But if there occurs any dispute during counting, the BJP’s agent would insist on counting these erroneous votes and thus the replacement of the machines is necessary, he further added.
However, these errors disappeared when EVMs were tested for the third time. “But we cannot be sure that the errors would reappear in the fourth or fifth test,” he said.
Meanwhile, no extra votes were registered for CPM’s hammer, sickle and star symbol nor the Congress’s hand symbol during the mock trial.
