Page 120 - Leap of Faith inside pages with cover (1)

Leap of Faith Journey of Indian Elections

those elections. The Election Commission, taking Another challenge faced by Election Commission was
cognisance on media reports, issued a press release on more subtle but persistent. It was the problem of below
the subject on July 5, 2009. The performance and security par voting in elections, despite the rising literacy rate in the
features of the EVMs had been upheld in various judicial country. In the previous three elections – 2009, 2004 and
pronouncements. Meanwhile on July 27, 2009 the 1999- the voting percentage did not exceed 60 percent.
Hon'ble Supreme Court of India, while disposing a Voting never exceeded two-third in any Lok Sabha election.
petition filed by V.V. Rao & Ors, raising questions about Counter-intuitively, the national literacy rate rising from
the use of EVMs observed that petitioners could 18.32 percent in 1951 (updated figures) to 64.83 percent in
approach the Election Commission in the mater. Similar 2001 (and further 72.98 percent in 2011), the electoral
petitions were pending in Madras High Court, Bombay participation stagnated between 50 and 60 percent.
High Court and Madhya Pradesh High Court, Jabalpur.
The setting provided a perfect justification for launching of
The Election Commission, as an extraordinary gesture, voters' outreach, education and facilitation programme.
invited political parties, and petitioners, and other This led to the formulation of the SVEEP (Systematic Voters'
individuals interested in the issue to visit Nirvachan Sadan Education and Electoral Participation) by the Election
between August 3 and 8, 2009 to practically demonstrate Commission. Designed to be pursued on perennial basis, a
their allegations on specimen EVMs. One hundred EVM SVEEP Division was formed in the Election Commission. It
samples, obtained on random basis from 10 states across was placed under a Director General, drawn from the
India, were kept in the Nirvachan Sadan to be scrutinised Ministry of Information & Broadcasting.
or proven fallible by the applicants. The critics, naturally,
failed to establish any of their claims. Despite their failure, Elections to the legislative assembly of Jharkhand in
November& December, 2009 proved challenging. The
there was no closure. Criticism of the EVM- often
depending upon the election results- continued to buffet state had been under President's rule since January 19,
the public discourse for years to come. 2009 following political crisis. Jharkhand is one of the Left
Wing Insurgency hit states. Keeping these and several
However, the debate over the EVM, motivated the other concerns in the mind the elections were staggered
Election Commission to work for the development of into five phases; and polling hours between 7 AM to 3 PM.
VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail). A suggestion This election had some early experimentations of voters
from the political parties in October, 2010 was well taken engagement activity under IEC that yielded dividends.
that VVPAT would enhance the credibility of the EVM. It
The overall voters' turnout figure was 56.96 percent.
was conceded that a voter had the right to know to which
candidate his/her vote had exactly gone. A prototype was Election Commission of India marked its diamond jubilee
developed by Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) within a in January, 2010. The celebrations were inaugurated by
short span in 2010-11. These were put to field trial in five the then President of India viz. Pratibha Devi Patil in
locations in the country Ladakh, Thiruvananthapuram, Vigyan Bhawan on January 25, 2010. The theme chosen
Cherrapunjee, East Delhi and Jaisalmer in July, 2011- in for the Diamond Jubilee Year (2010) - “Greater
cooperation with the political parties. Participation for Stronger Democracy”. Apart from the

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