Amid the ongoing 17th Lok Sabha elections, 21 opposition parties filed a review petition in the Supreme Court on Wednesday asking it to order verification of 50 per cent EVMs using the voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines.
21 opposition parties filed a review petition before the Supreme Court today seeking a direction to the Election Commission to verify 50 % of the EVMs using VVPAT. pic.twitter.com/OfMvT4tAcj
— ANI (@ANI) April 24, 2019
The petition was moved after cases of alleged malfunctioning of EVMs were reported from across the nation during the first, second and third phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
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On March 14, a petition was filed by the opposition parties seeking verification of EVMs through VVPAT machines before the declaration of results in parliamentary elections.
On April 8, the apex court ordered the Election Commission (EC) to increase the VVPAT count of one randomly selected EVM per Assembly constituency to five in the Lok Sabha polls, stating that it was to ensure the ‘greatest degree of accuracy and satisfaction’ in the electoral process.
After five days, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi declared that they were considering filing a review petition in order to push for their initial demand of random checking of 50 per cent EVMs through VVPAT.
(With ANI inputs)