New Delhi, 24 September (H.S.): Rashtriya Nagarik Party national president Krishna Kumar Gautam has called for the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Punjab to be conducted using a biometric identification-based voting system. In a memorandum submitted to the President, Prime Minister and Chief Election Commissioner, Gautam has sought the adoption of such a system for the 2027 Assembly elections in the three states as well as the general election.

In a statement on Thursday, Gautam said the Election Commission had earlier conducted Lok Sabha and Assembly elections using ballot papers before electronic voting machines (EVMs) were introduced after several years. He claimed that the use of EVMs had enhanced transparency, eliminated the possibility of invalid votes and brought an end to the large-scale irregularities he alleged occurred during paper-based voting in Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.

He also said the shift away from paper ballots had eliminated the expenditure involved in printing ballot papers and reduced the time required for vote counting.

Gautam further said that, following questions raised over EVMs, the manufacturers of the machines subsequently developed Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines to address concerns and demonstrate the reliability of the EVM-based voting system.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar