Election panel issues new rules for checking EVMs-OxBig News Network

The Election Commission (EC) has issued a fresh set of standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the checking and verification of EVMs, including a burnt memory check and the option of a mock poll for the first two losing candidates, as per the Supreme Court orders, dated May 7.

As per the revised SOPs, the poll panel will not delete the burnt memory data of EVMs. The revised SOPs were circulated to all chief electoral officers (CEOs) on June 17, after last month’s Supreme Court judgement.

The verdict had come after the petitioners, which also included ADR, had approached the top court against the rules and the poll panel agreed to make changes. Last year on April 26, the Supreme Court had rejected a petition challenging the use of EVMs and a plea for 100 per cent counting of Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips.

However, at the same time, it had given a go ahead to a new system of checking and verification of votes for candidates who came second or third in an election. Soon after the verdict, the poll panel had come out with the SOPs on June 1, 2024, which was followed by a technical set of SOPs, issued on July 16, 2024.

As per the SOPs, candidates who had come second or third could ask for the checking and verification of the burnt memory/microcontroller of up to 5 per cent of the EVMs used in the voting.

Besides, those who opt for the facility would be able to conduct a mock poll of up to 1,400 votes per machine, and if the results of the EVM and VVPAT slips matched, then the machine would be considered to have passed the test.

Several candidates, especially those from the INDIA bloc, had utilised this option provided by the Supreme Court verdict.

The EC had revised the SOPs after the petitioners had again approached the court, seeking directions that the data stored in the EVMs not be deleted till the process of verification was underway and the symbol loading units (SLUs) be covered as part of the process.

The SLU is the device that is used to load the symbols of candidates onto the VVPAT machine. Activists have long believed that this is the stage when potential tampering could take place.

Subsequently, on February 11, this year, the apex court ordered the EC to not delete the data. The commission then filed an affidavit complying with the order and informing that the SOP would be amended. The court accepted the proposal and added that candidates would have the option to “state the data loaded on the SLU may not be erased and retained for use in the mock poll”.

Much of the SOPs are the same, including the requirement that during the mock poll, engineers of the EVM-manufacturing companies – Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) –switch on the control unit (CU), ballot unit (BU) and VVPAT of the EVM in the presence of the candidates or their representatives.

If all units are switched on and the self-diagnosis is completed – that is, if there is no error message – they can go on to the next step of the mock poll. They also provide candidates with the choice of loading the symbols on the VVPAT.

“The eligible candidates may opt to upload the data loaded on the SLUs be used in the mock poll. In this regard, it is highlighted that the VVPAT already have loaded data of actual candidates’ symbols. However, the applicant can opt for use of already loaded symbols of VVPAT or request to reload the symbols loaded on the symbol loading units afresh in VVPAT for the mock poll,” they say.

Besides, they have increased the time, during which the records of the checking and verification process, including VVPAT slips and video footage, would be stored with the district election officer after the completion of the process, from one month to three months.