Kasaragod: At least four electronic voting machines (EVM) erroneously registered votes in favour of BJP during mock polling in Kasaragod on Wednesday, April 17, alleged agents of LDF and UDF candidates.

Kasaragod Lok Sabha constituency’s LDF candidate and CPM leader M V Balakrishnan filed a complaint with District Collector Inbasekar K, designated as the District Election Officer, to look into the errors.

UDF candidate Rajmohan Unnithan’s agent Muhammed Nasar Cherkalam Abdulla urged the assistant returning officer (ARO) in Kasaragod Lok Sabha constituency to change the erring machines. BJP’s M L Ashwini is the NDA candidate in Kasaragod.

Nasar Cherkalam said the BJP’s lotus was getting extra votes during the commissioning of the machines for the polling stations in Kasaragod Assembly Constituency. He also pointed out that the Congress’s ‘hand’ symbol was smaller than other symbols on the voting machines and asked the officials to change it.

Kasaragod Lok Sabha constituency’s voting machines have 10 options, including NOTA (none of the above).

In the first round of mock polls, all 190 EVMs were tested by casting votes against each of the 10 options. BJP’s lotus was the first option.

The officials tested 20 machines at a time. When all 10 options on the EVMs were pressed one time each, the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) gave two votes to the BJP in four machines.

When the BJP’s lotus was not pressed, the same four erroneous VVPAT units gave one vote to the party, said Nasar Cherkalam. “When we raised the issue, the assistant returning Officer said the VVPAT slips with erroneous votes had the message ‘not to be counted’,” said Unnithan’s election agent.

But if there is a dispute during counting, the BJP’s agents would insist on counting these erroneous votes, said Nasar Cherkalam. “That’s why we asked for the replacement of these machines,” he said.

He said the errors automatically disappeared when the EVMs were tested for the third time. “But we cannot be sure that the errors would reappear in the fourth or fifth test,” he said.

“However, what we found strange was that neither the CPM’s hammer, sickle and star symbol nor the Congress’s hand symbol got extra votes during the mock trial. Only BJP’s lotus got extra votes,” said Nasar Cherkalam.


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