PTI

New Delhi, January 15

Most of the Opposition events have determined to oppose the Election Commission’s proposal on distant digital voting machine (RVM) as it’s “sketchy” and never “concrete”, senior Congress chief Digvijaya Singh mentioned on Sunday, a day earlier than the ballot panel showcases an RVM prototype to representatives of events.

He made the remarks after a gathering of Opposition events facilitated by the Congress that was attended by leaders of the JD(U), Shiv Sena, CPI, CPI(M), National Conference, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), Revolutionary Socialist Party, Indian Union Muslim League, in addition to Independent Rajya Sabha MP and former Congress chief Kapil Sibal.

CPI General Secretary D Raja mentioned all of the events that had been on the assembly may even attend the Election Commission’s prototype demonstration and lift vital issues.

Singh mentioned the Nationalist Congress Party and the Samajwadi Party had been additionally on board the Opposition deliberations, although their representatives weren’t current on the assembly.

“The overall view of all political parties that attended today was to unanimously oppose the proposal of RVM because it is still very sketchy. The proposal is not concrete. There are political anomalies and problems in the proposal,” Singh mentioned.

“The definition of migrant labour, the number of migrant labour is all not very clear. Therefore, we all have unanimously made up our mind to oppose the proposal of RVM,” he mentioned.

Singh mentioned the EC has requested the events to provide their reply by January 31, and so these events that attended the assembly will meet once more on January 25 and ship their reply both collectively or individually however with a transparent view that they “don’t support RVM”.

At the identical time there have been quite a few issues in regards to the belief on EVM machines and all these issues which have been documented after an in depth dialogue with laptop science consultants, professionals and cryptographers will probably be raised, he mentioned.

Singh famous that the civil society had given a memorandum to the EC in May 2022 however the ballot panel had not even responded to them.

“We shall discuss all these issues on January 25,” he added.

Responding to a query, Singh mentioned all events that had expressed concern over EVMs and RVMs had been invited.

He mentioned BSP chief Mayawati has additionally spoken towards EVM. “We invite her to join this initiative,” he mentioned.

“The proposal given by the EC is most impractical. They have given a figure of 30 crore of migrant labour when survey has not been done,” he mentioned.

Significantly, no TMC consultant was current on the assembly.

Speaking with reporters, Raja mentioned the EC has convened a gathering on RVMs and the events that met Sunday will all attend Monday’s assembly and lift vital questions on EVMs, RVMs and migrant labourers.

“Without taking political parties into confidence the EC cannot decide anything unilaterally,” he mentioned.

RJD chief Manoj Jha mentioned Opposition events will ask all types of questions and lift three problems with credibility—credibility of fee, credibility of definition of migrant employee and credibility of the very concept of Article 324 — holding free and truthful elections.

An announcement issued after the assembly mentioned sixteen opposition events held a gathering on the Constitution Club right here to debate the joint technique for Monday’s assembly convened by the EC.

The Opposition events deliberated on the inquiries to be positioned earlier than EC relating to RVMs.

“It was decided that the ECI’s response to the questions raised by the parties in tomorrow’s meeting will be collectively be considered later and the opposition parties will take a joint stand on the issue,” the assertion mentioned.

The ballot panel has invited eight recognised nationwide events and 57 recognised state events for an illustration on Monday morning.

A letter despatched to them by the EC states that they’ve been invited for a “discussion on improving voter participation of domestic migrants using remote voting.”

During the demonstration of the distant EVM, members of EC’s Technical Expert Committee may even be current.

While inviting events for the demonstration of the prototype, the ballot panel had additionally issued an idea word on the expertise.

Parties had been additionally requested to provide in writing their views by finish of January on points similar to modifications required on the legislation to permit using RVM.

If applied after stakeholder consultations, migrant voters don’t have to journey to their house districts to train their franchise.