PANAJI
Can invisible waves from mobile towers aid in rigging votes polled in an electronic voting machine? Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in Goa certainly seems to believe so.
The party's Goa general secretary Sanjay Barde on Tuesday said that once polls are conducted the EVMs should be stored in a secure location away from any mobile range, in order to prevent rigging of votes polled in the machines.
Speaking to reporters in Panaji, after the opposition party official submitted a memorandum to the Goa Chief Electoral Officer, Barde also said that voting in Goa should be carried out in the last phase of the state assembly elections which are scheduled to be held in five states in early 2022.
"Counting should not be held in the vicinity of mobile towers. It should be done in an xyz place where there is no mobile range," Barde told reporters. He also said that Goa should go back to paper ballot polling, to eliminate any doubt about the rigging of e-ballot using technology.
"Goa is a small state. Our municipal elections are held using ballot paper. ZP polls on the ballot paper. Why use EVMs for these elections? Crores of rupees are spent on these machines. We should revert to paper ballots for assembly polls too," Barde also said.
The NCP official has also urged the poll authority to ensure that a repeat of the 2017 election pattern is not repeated where votes cast in the Goa assembly elections were counted after one month when the last phase of elections in Uttar Pradesh was completed.
"Goa elections should be held along with the last phase of voting in Uttar Pradesh so that votes are counted immediately to eliminate any possibility of rigging," Barde said.
Five states namely Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Manipur are scheduled to go to the polls in early 2022.
