AAP questions EC’s credibility after it advises party to introspect defeat

Ananya Panda

Tribune News Service 

New Delhi, April 2

Raising questions on Election Commission’s “credibility”, the Aam Aadmi Party on Sunday termed its move of turning down its request for verification of votes and paper trail data “political”.

It also expressed concern over incident of alleged EVM tampering in Bhind district of Madhya Pradesh.

The party urged the EC to take immediate action to restore faith of the voters in the electoral process and what it said for the “sake of the institution’s dignity and credibility”.

Earlier, the EC was critical of the AAP when it stated that it was free to approach the Delhi High Court for tallying of the data even as it advised the party to introspect over its performance in Punjab instead of blaming it on the EVMs.

“The incident of Bhind has shown that the Election Commission has completely failed in its duty to protect the EVMs and the integrity of the election process and therefore failed in fulfilling its constitutional obligation of conducting free and fair elections,” said the AAP in a statement here.

“It is unfortunate that instead of taking due action, the Election Commission is issuing political statement on the issue of EVM tampering.

“The incident of EVM tampering in Bhind district of Madhya Pradesh, where the VVPAT enabled EVM printed BJP’s election symbol Lotus irrespective of the button pressed during a mock trial, has made it clear that Electronic Voting Machines are not tamper-proof.

“The incident shook the faith of millions of voters in the impartiality of the Election Commission and the entire process of elections using Electronic Voting Machines,” added the party.

“Turning a blind eye to the shocking reports trickling in from UP, Maharashtra, Punjab and now Madhya Pradesh would serve no purpose and would only erode the credibility of the Election Commission,” the AAP said.