Assam Elections 2021: Cong demands counting of 20% polling stations’ VVPAT per LAC

GUWAHATI: The Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) today moved the Election Commission (EC) demanding counting of VVPATs of at least 20 per cent of total number of polling stations in constituency in view of large-scale irregularities in transportation of EVMs during the recent Assam assembly elections.

In a letter to the EC, APCC president Ripun Bora has requested counting of voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) of at least 20 per cent of the total polling stations instead of those of five polling stations per constituency in order to convince the people about a fair counting process.

Lauding the EC for completion of the three-phase polling without any major untoward incident, Bora stated: “… number of incidents like, looting of EVM, suspicious discovery of EVM in many places, even in the car of a sitting BJP MLA of Ratabari LAC, malfunctioning of EVM etc took place. For these reasons, the Election Commission had to issue order for re-poll in four places under three different LAC.

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“Therefore, in the interest of impartial and transparent counting of votes, our Congress party urges upon you for passing suitable instruction to all concerned for taking up counting of VVPAT of at least 20% polling stations for each LAC instead of counting of VVPAT only for 5 polling stations per LAC.”

“”I sincerely believe that in order to build up the confidence in the minds of people to the Election Commission of India and to prevent if any manipulation or malfunctioning in case of EVM, the counting of VVPAT of 20% polling stations in each LAC will be a landmark decision in the coming days for strengthening Parliamentary Democracy and to ensure fault free counting,” Bora concluded.

The Congress had earlier demanded access to CCTV surveillance at strong rooms to all contesting candidates so that no malpractice could be done at strong rooms.