Releasing the memorandum to the public for endorsement along with others, former IAS officer Wajahat Habibullah said elections need to be conducted properly and unfortunately innovations that are introduced lack in the concept that democracy needs to remain sacrosanct.
Activists on Monday demanded radical changes in the way elections are held in the country by having full count of VVPAT slips, social audit of electoral rolls to prevent arbitrary deletions, and ending anonymous political donations through electoral bonds.
They will be submitting a memorandum to the Election Commission in this regard, in which they argue that EVM/VVPAT voting does not comply with the essential ‘democracy principles’ that each voter should be able to verify that their vote is caste as intended, recorded as cast, and counted as recorded.
It also referred to reports of “arbitrary deletions and missing names” in the electoral rolls of voters belonging to minorities and disadvantaged groups, calling into question the integrity of electoral rolls. It also questioned electoral bonds and wanted the EC to openly oppose the instrument.
Releasing the memorandum to the public for endorsement along with others, former IAS officer Wajahat Habibullah said elections need to be conducted properly and unfortunately innovations that are introduced lack in the concept that democracy needs to remain sacrosanct.
“I won’t say go back to paper ballots but are the EVMs beyond doubt? We do not have conclusive proof, unfortunately. Are EVM-VVPAT functioning transparently? Unfortunately, the answer is no. Election funding, is it transparent. The answer is no,” he said.
Jagdeep Chhokar of Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said there is “systemic and systematic deletion” of names from electoral rolls, and one saw this in Karnataka and the EC had to go for a special emergency revision.
“We are hearing this from Rajasthan now. Systematically names are being deleted. There should be a social audit of electoral rolls. Common man should be able to check electoral rolls. Now, parties get two copies. The rolls should be put on the EC website in a searchable mode. People should get access to electoral rolls,” he said.
Echoing the demand for shutting down electoral bonds, transparency activist Anjali Bhardwaj said the financial instrument, along with amendments in FCRA allowing foreign donations, have opened the floodgates of anonymous funding.
Well-known lawyer Prashant Bhushan referred to the latest debate on ‘One Nation, One Election’ and said it cannot happen in a federal system.
He said he felt it as a “test balloon” and the real intention as speculated in a section that the Modi government wants to bring forward Lok Sabha elections.
He alleged, “all say it is to prepone LS elections but I think the intention is something else. The Centre knows that it will lose in five states and it wants to postpone the elections in these states to be held in November to April-May.”