Importantly, EVMs have been used in all parliamentary constituencies in India since 2004, and also in state assembly elections. Recently, the Supreme Court of India has sought an affidavit from the Indian government on the 'mixing of votes' cast in EVMs, as suggested by the Election Commission of India. The Court had acted on a petition, which argued in favor of secrecy of votes. "If votes cast in each EVM was kept secret and announced only after totaling [mixing of] votes in all EVMs in a constituency then politicians would not know which segment voted for which candidate," said the petitioner. "This would help voters exercise their franchise without fear."
Following the Supreme Court order, the Indian central government has now referred the matter to the law commission for its inputs. It is gathered that the law panel is finalizing its recommendation in favor of mixing of votes. In Nepal too, there should be measures to ensure appropriate mixing of votes to maintain strong voter secrecy.
Overall, the use of machines in voting has some definite advantages, such as a vote once recorded in an EVM cannot be tampered with. It saves on printing and stationary costs; the storage and transportation of the machine is comparably easy; it cuts down on invalid votes; it facilitates easy and accurate counting without any manipulation at counting centers; and all these in extremely short time span. The time saved is a plus for it does away with the extra expenditure incurred during the counting and in case some candidates contest the official count, the costs can really multiply fast. With EMVs, it is also harder to rig elections at the polling booth. The machine is designed in such way that it only records a maximum of five votes per minute—or any other predetermined number which can be set at the outset.
Five, say, provisions are made for recording only five votes a minute, it would take half an hour to record just 150 bogus votes. This gives law enforcement and election officials enough time to respond. If foul play is suspected, in EMVs there are also special switches which can be pressed to completely stop recording of votes. Of course, if the whole chain of command is dishonest, there is nothing to stop manipulation, but fraud on such scale is unlikely. On the other hand, in the ballot paper system, we have seen that intruders can seize a booth, intimidate polling officer and cast votes by marking or putting stamp on hundreds of ballot papers and stuffing them into ballot boxes in a matter of minutes.
In almost all developing countries cost of election is going up and Nepal is no exception. Our total expenditure was about Rs 150 million for the 1991 general election. It increased to Rs 220 million in 1994 mid-term polls, and Rs 320 million in 1999 election. In the last CA election, the total cost was a whopping Rs 30 billion. No doubt, election should be less expensive but the fairness of elections is more important. Threats and inducements of voters are rampant in ruler areas. It is a well-known fact that money and muscle play a vital role in our elections, especially in First-Past-The -Post (FPTP) system in which a candidate can win with a margin of a single vote. Illiterate and poor voters are easily cowed to vote a certain way.
Money is spent to bribe voters and officials managing the polling booths; and state power is used to threaten voters to cast vote in favor of ruling parties. This is the reason parties are keen to be in power at election time. In this context too, the effectiveness of the EVMs has to be considered. If a candidate knows how many votes he has received at a particular booth, it increases the role of money and muscle considerably. Again, EVMs significantly reduce these kinds of risks.
The effectiveness of EMVs has to be judged by their functionality and usefulness as well. Sooner or later local body elections will have to be conducted. These elections will probably take place after the new constitution is promulgated by the CA. There might be a few complications. The elections of Village Development Committee are extremely complex affairs. A voter has to choose a chairman of the VDC, a vice-Chairman, a chairman of the ward, three members of the ward and a woman representative. In all, he has to choose six representatives by casting six votes at a time.
The choices of the voter have to be registered simultaneously or by turn. The question now is: Should separate machines be used for each vote or can a single machine do the job? If separate machines have to be used it will be a costly affair and also an extremely time-consuming exercise. Alternately, the law has to be amended as per the functionality of EVMs. In other words, the number of elected posts may have to be reduced. There will also need to be voter education prior to widespread use of electronic devices for voting. Thus the EC has to evaluate the usefulness of the EVMs and the fairness of election before using them freely. Done wisely, electronic voting can be a useful tool in advancement of electoral democracy.
The author is former election commissioner
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