Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Kapil Sibal issues checklist to verify 'EVM tampered or not' during counting on result day

New Delhi: Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal has said that he has made a checklist for all the parties and their counting agents with details of the control unit number, ballot unit number and VVPAT ID to assist them on counting day. 

Sibal said that since people are saying that EVM machines might have been tampered with, he wanted to make sure that is not the case. 

“Any machine can be tampered with; we aren’t saying that there is no trust. However, until the voter does not see that the vote they cast has been counted towards that candidate...It is only for this reason that we have given this,” Sibal said.

Sibal said that the control unit number, ballot unit number and VVPAT ID first must be matched. 

“The time when the machine will be opened is written in a column. If there is any difference in this time then you will know that the machine has already been opened somewhere... The serial number of the control unit can also be matched by parties,” Sibal said.

He added that if the date in the “poll result” section, which is seen after pressing the “result” button on the control unit, differs from the date of polling, it is a problem. Additionally, serial numbers on the CU must match both before and after pressing the “result” button.

“The total votes polled, which is seen after pressing “Result” button, must also match with the number mentioned in Form 17C Part I,” he added. 

In the polling process, the control unit lies with the polling officer while the ballot unit is the machine where the vote is cast. During the voting process, the polling officer presses the ‘ballot’ button after every vote. When a vote is pressed on the ballot unit till seven seconds after which a beep is heard, the VVPAT slip shows the symbol of the party to which the vote is cast. There have been complaints that the slip shows a different party.