The Election Commission on Wednesday rejected the demand of 22 opposition parties that the VVPAT slips be tallied before counting of votes in the electronic voting machines (EVMs) for the Lok Sabha election on Thursday.
On Tuesday, the leaders of the 22 opposition parties had met the Election Commission in New Delhi to request that VVPAT verification process in five randomly selected assembly segments be conducted before the counting of votes began and not afterwards, as has been the practice.
The demand of the opposition parties was considered during a meeting of the three-member 'full commission' of the Election Commission on Wednesday, and rejected. The Election Commission reportedly contended that the verification of all VVPAT slips before counting of EVM votes would delay the announcement of results.
The Supreme Court had ordered in April that the Election Commission verify the VVPAT slips in five randomly selected assembly segments of a constituency. The opposition parties had sought tallying of at least 50 per cent of the VVPAT slaps with EVM votes in a constituency, but this demand was rejected by the Supreme Court.