pywong
14th August 2009, 09:09 PM
Aug 15, 2009
India's election machine under fire
By Santwana Bhattacharya
NEW DELHI - Complaints about the rigging of elections are nothing new in India.
The centerpiece of this revolution was the electronic voting machine (EVM) - it holds a special place in the technology-savvy EC's inventory. As its application spread progressively across India's political map in a heuristic experiment that went remarkably well, the country registered a concomitant qualitative change in the conduct of its elections.
The 2009 parliamentary election was the first one where millions of voters across the length and breadth of the country cast their votes by pressing buttons on the EVM. No one doubted the efficacy of the instrument - its arrival was taken to herald an efficient and error-proof future.
But the EVM's dream run and the EC's perceived infallibility on this front have been challenged in the recent past. Most recently, by the prima donna of Tamil politics, J Jayalalitha of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, who decided to boycott assembly by-elections to five constituencies on the ground that the EVM - the technological foundation on which rests the claim of fair elections - is not tamper-proof. Atimes. (http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KH15Df02.html)
India's election machine under fire
By Santwana Bhattacharya
NEW DELHI - Complaints about the rigging of elections are nothing new in India.
The centerpiece of this revolution was the electronic voting machine (EVM) - it holds a special place in the technology-savvy EC's inventory. As its application spread progressively across India's political map in a heuristic experiment that went remarkably well, the country registered a concomitant qualitative change in the conduct of its elections.
The 2009 parliamentary election was the first one where millions of voters across the length and breadth of the country cast their votes by pressing buttons on the EVM. No one doubted the efficacy of the instrument - its arrival was taken to herald an efficient and error-proof future.
But the EVM's dream run and the EC's perceived infallibility on this front have been challenged in the recent past. Most recently, by the prima donna of Tamil politics, J Jayalalitha of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, who decided to boycott assembly by-elections to five constituencies on the ground that the EVM - the technological foundation on which rests the claim of fair elections - is not tamper-proof. Atimes. (http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KH15Df02.html)