VOTE OF CONFIDENCE

The electronic voting machine has come a long way. Even as doubts persist, the Election Commission of India and former commissioners vouch for its credibility

- SONI MISHRA

The Lok Sabha elections of 2004 witnessed a big technological leap. The traditional ballot box was completely replaced by the sleek Electronic Voting Machine (EVM). Polling stations across all 543 constituencies resounded with the loud beeping sound made by the EVM every time a voter cast his or her vote. In a first, the counting of the votes was completed in less than a day, which inspired a sense of amazement because the counting of ballot papers would take two to three days.

This important milestone in the country’s electoral history was recorded 20 years ago. Since then, three more Lok Sabha elections and 132 state assembly polls have been held using the EVM. The coming parliamentary elections will be the fifth since 2004 to have universal use of the EVM. It has been an eventful journey for the voting machine, hailed as a uniquely Indian innovation that has transformed the way elections are conducted in the country, even as political parties and other stakeholders have questioned its reliability at regular intervals.

The journey of the voting machine had begun much before 2004 though. In 1977, Chief Election Commissioner S.L. Shakdhar had proposed the idea of developing a voting machine. The Electronics Corporation of India Ltd, Hyderabad, and the Bharat Electronics Limited, Bengaluru, developed prototypes for the EVM.

The voting machine made its debut in some polling stations in Kerala’s Paravur assembly constituency during the byelection in 1982. It was not a dream debut though— the use of EVM was challenged legally, and the Supreme Court ruled that it could not be used in elections since an enabling provision was not present in the law. The Rajiv Gandhi government amended the Representation of People Act in March 1989 to provide for a legal backing to the EVM. And, Section 61A was inserted into the law.