The Election Commission today turned down the Opposition demand to tally the VVPAT (Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail) slips with the Electronic Voting Machines before the votes are counted in EVMs tomorrow. The VVPAT tally from five random booths in each Assembly segment with the EVM will be done after the counting of votes, and not before as the Opposition had demanded.
The counting of the five VVPAT slips from every Assembly seat has been made mandatory by the Supreme Court.
A delegation of 22 Opposition political parties called on the Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora yesterday and expressed their concerns about the transparency of the counting process, especially after reports and videos of EVMs being taken in private vehicles in various parts of north India surfaced following the final phase of polling.
The Opposition parties demanded that the VVPAT counting be done first and then the entire counting from the constituency if no discrepancy is found. In case of discrepancy, they demanded 100 per cent tallying from the Assembly constituency. The EC had asked for a day to consider the issue and after a meeting attended by all three Commissioners, the demand was rejected.
Counting of votes will begin at 8 am on Thursday.
