EC's Meeting with Political Parties

What is the issue?

• The Election Commission (EC) recently held its meeting with all major political parties.
• The meeting is aimed at making the electoral process more transparent, inclusive and credible.

What are the major demands?

• Several state Assembly elections and the general election are approaching.
• In this context, there were three major demands:

1. giving up on electronic voting machines (EVMs) and moving back to paper ballots
2. linking voter identification cards to Aadhaar
3. cap on election expenditure of political parties (click here to know more)

What is the tussle with EVMs?

• Most of the parties flagged the issue of malfunctioning of electronic voting machines (EVMs).
• EVMs have typically been questioned by parties after losing elections.
• However, it is claimed that EVMs are tamper-proof.
• It also eliminates booth capturing, a favourite pastime of political parties during elections.
• This is because the machines do not allow casting of more than five votes a minute.
• The provision of voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines has further enhanced EVMs' credibility.
• Besides, a return to the ballot paper system would also not be advisable.
• As, it would come with huge environmental costs and logistical issues.

What is the Aadhaar linkage demand?

• The demand for linking Aadhaar to voter ID cards is prompted by concerns about the existence of ghost voters.
• E.g. the Congress has complained about 6 million fake voters in the electoral rolls of Madhya Pradesh.
• It is true that Aadhaar would go a long way in eliminating these fake voters.
• But notably, Aadhaar itself is not a proof of citizenship.
• Moreover, there are privacy concerns related to Aadhaar.
• So mandating it as the final adjudicator for voting rights is questionable.

Source: Business Standard