Delhi: Returning Officer Refutes AAP’s Claim About EVM Documents

AAP leader Raghav Chadha had put out a tweet claiming he had learnt this information through ‘reliable sources’.

Aam Aadmi Party leader Raghav Chadha’s claim about the Election Commission calling polling officers of the South Delhi constituency to “re-create and re-sign EVM related documents” is false, the Returning Officer of the South Delhi constituency has told The Quint.

Raghav Chadha had put out a tweet claiming that he had learnt this information through ‘reliable sources’.

Have learnt through reliable sources that EC has summoned presiding officers of South Delhi Parliamentary Constituency's polling stations to re-create and re-sign EVM related documents. This is shocking. What is going on? Why are docs being recreated? Are EVMs being replaced too?

— Raghav Chadha (@raghav_chadha) May 17, 2019

The Returning Officer said that the EVMs and VVPATs had already been stored in the strong room, surrounded by three layers of security; the police (outer layer), Armed Police (middle layer) and CAPF (inner layer).

A copy of Form 17 C, which contains the number of polled votes in each EVM, has been given to all the polling agents present at the polling station, the Returning Officer explained, saying that this ‘eliminated any chance of manipulation’.

According to the Returning Officer, the idea behind the poll counting process is to increase transparency; there is a separate monitoring area where representatives of political parties can sit and ensure everything is an order. The Returning Officer noted that only AAP representatives had been sitting there.