A viral post on social media has claimed that electronic voting machines (EVMs) were used for the first time in the country in 2009 under the Congress-led government.
Vishvas News in its investigation found this claim to be misleading. EVMs were used in all 543 Lok Sabha seats across the country in 2004 and before that they were used during several assembly elections. In 2001, EVMs were deployed in all seats during the Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry and West Bengal assembly elections. Furthermore, EVMs were introduced in a phased manner during the assembly elections of different states, commencing in 1998 with the elections for 16 assembly seats of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Delhi.
What Is Viral?
Social media user 'rbsonu_sr', while sharing the viral post (archive link), wrote, "EVM came in 2009 and was installed by the Congress government, if EVMs were hacked then Congress would have done it first... and BJP would have done it. Never lets you come to power... Understand that EVMs are not hacked..!"
Investigation:
To verify the viral claim made regarding the use of EVMs, we checked the documents available on the Election Commission's website. In our investigation, we found a copy of the Status Paper on EVM (Edition - 3), which provides step-by-step information about the use of EVM.
According to available information, following a consensus reached in 1998 to conduct elections using EVM, they were used in the elections for 16 assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Delhi.
Later in 1999, EVMs were used on 46 parliamentary seats and during the Haryana Assembly elections, voting was done through EVMs on 45 seats.
In 2001, the assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry, and West Bengal were entirely conducted using EVMs and it continued to be used in other subsequent assembly elections as well.
2004 Lok Sabha elections
In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, EVMs were used for voting on all 543 seats. According to this document released in 2018, "Since 2000, EVMs have been used during voting in a total of 113 state assembly elections and three general elections (2004, 2009 and 2014) in India."
The 2019 Lok Sabha elections were also conducted entirely through EVMs. Therefore, the claim made in the viral post that the use of EVMs began in 2009 is false.
It is noteworthy that on May 19, 1982, the ECI issued guidelines under Article 324 of the Indian Constitution and used EVMs in 50 polling stations in the 70-Paravur assembly constituency of Kerala. After this, EVMs were also used in 10 by-elections in 1982-83. However, due to the lack of specific law, these elections were challenged in the Supreme Court (Election Petition 01 of 1982 filed by AC Jose) and on March 5, 1984, the Supreme Court ruled that without a specific legal provision, EVMs cannot be used in elections.
Following this, in December 1988, the Parliament amended the law and added Section 61A to the Representation of the People Act 1951, granting permission to the ECI to use EVMs. This amendment came into effect on March 15, 1989. Subsequently, the Supreme Court declared Section 61A constitutionally valid in the case of AIDMK vs Chief Election Commissioner and others (2002 UJ (1) 387).
Details of legal interference and lawsuits regarding EVMs can be seen in the following chart.
Regarding the viral post, Vishvas News contacted the spokesperson of the Central Election Commission, who confirmed that in the 2004 general elections, voting was done through EVMs across all the Lok Sabha seats and EVMs had been used in previous assembly elections as well.
It is noteworthy that in 2018, the Supreme Court dismissed a petition filed in the country demanding elections to be conducted through ballot papers instead of EVMs.
According to the news published in Economic Times on November 22, 2018 , "The Supreme Court rejected the petition to use ballot paper in place of EVMs in the upcoming assembly elections and Lok Sabha elections. The court said that no system is perfect. This PIL was filed in the court by A Subba Rao on behalf of NGO Nyaya Bhoomi. He had said that EVMs can be misused and hence should not be used during elections."
Following the Supreme Court's ruling, the 2019 general elections were conducted using EVMs only. Fact check reports of other viral claims related to EVMs can be read here.
The user who shared the viral post has approximately five thousand followers on Instagram. According to the Election Commission's notification (archive link), four phases of voting have already occurred in the Lok Sabha elections and the fifth phase is scheduled on May 20, which will encompass voting on a total of 49 seats in eight states and union territories.
Conclusion: The claim that EVMs have come into existence since 2009 is false. In 2004, elections were conducted with the help of EVMs in all 543 Lok Sabha seats nationwide and before that they were used in many assembly elections. In 2001, EVMs were used in all seats during the Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry, and West Bengal assembly elections. Furthermore, EVMs were introduced in a phased manner during the assembly elections of different states, beginning in 1998 with elections for 16 assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Delhi. The general elections of 2004, 2009, 2014 and 2019 were also conducted using EVMs and the ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha elections are also being conducted using EVMs.
(This story was originally published by Vishvas News, and republished by NDTV as part of the Shakti Collective)
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