No Discrepancy Or Tampering Found During EVM-VVPAT Verification In Tamil Nadu, ECI Conducted Exercise On Supreme Court's Order

The Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) have proven their credibility in the first-ever EVM-VVPAT Checking and Verification (C&V) exercise as no discrepancy or tampering was found, Economic Times reported.

It is expected that the C&V process being done by the Election Commission of India (ECI) will be completed in Tamil Nadu by 1 September, no issues have been found in the process so far.

In total, C&V applications were filed in eight Lok Sabha constituencies. Four of them have been concluded with no discrepancy found. The process was closed at two places due to the absence of applicant candidates.

In the other two places, the applicant candidates are waiting for the court orders. As per the Standard Operating Procedure, candidates are needed to obtain special permission from the High Court for EVM verification.

In Tamil Nadu, the C&V was done for the Vellore and Virudhunagar constituencies. The runner-up candidates in these two Lok Sabha constituencies sought the EVM-VVPAT verification alleging tampering.

During the elections also, there was a lot of noise around the sanctity of the EVMs. So much so, that the Supreme Court had to hear a plea against EVMs just before the Lok Sabha elections.

On 26 April, the Supreme Court rejected the request for 100 per cent verification of VVPAT slips against EVM counts but directed the EC to make certain post-counting procedure modifications.

On 1 June, the ECI released an administrative Standard Operating Procedure, which says candidates who want to apply for verification must do so within seven days of the results and deposit Rs 40,000 per EVM.