Despite several poll code violations, EC reluctant to perform its duties, say former bureaucrats
Concerns have been raised about the fairness of the elections during the ongoing Lok Sabha polls, said qn open letter by the ex-civil servants.
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No Election Commission in the past has been as reluctant as the present one in discharging its duties despite getting several complaints regarding poll code violations, said a group of 102 former civil servants in an open letter on Saturday.
“To retain the faith of the ordinary citizen in constitutional institutions vested with the onerous responsibility of the free and fair conduct of elections, it is necessary that these institutions must not only be fair but also appear to be fair,” read the letter.
It pointed out, however, that concerns have been raised at several instances about the fairness of the elections during the ongoing Lok Sabha polls.
The former bureaucrats pointed out that the fears range from the possibility of Electronic Voting machines and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail machines being tampered with, to voter suppression.
A Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail is a machine that prints a paper slip of the candidate’s name, serial number and the party’s symbol after people have cast their vote. To avoid election fraud, it displays the paper slip for seven seconds for people to check if their vote has been cast correctly.
In April, the Supreme Court rejected all pleas seeking the tallying of all Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail slips to verify...
