NEW DELHI: The Election Commission of India (EC) on Tuesday issued the technical Standard Operating Procedure (SoPs) and stipulated choices for aggrieved candidates, who have applied for Supreme Court-directed checking of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) for possible tampering post Lok Sabha and assembly results.In an official statement, the poll panel said that the aggrieved candidates, who have applied for checking, would be allowed to pick machines from any polling station in an assembly segment and could opt for a mock poll and VVPAT slip count.The poll panel has received eight applications from aggrieved candidates, including those from the BJP and the Congress, for verification of tampering or modification in microcontroller chips embedded in the EVMs post declaration of the Lok Sabha election results on June 4. Along with these, three for the Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, where polling took place simultaneously, have also been received.On June 1, the EC had released an administrative SOP, which said aggrieved candidates who want to apply for verification, must do so within seven days of the results and deposit Rs 40,000 per EVM.Terming the suspicion of EVM manipulation “unfounded”, the Supreme Court on April 26 rejected the demand for reverting to the old paper ballot system, though it had said the candidates can approach EC for verification.Will allow to pick EVMs from any booth, says ECThe election commission said that the aggrieved candidates, who have applied for checking, would be allowed to pick machines from any polling station in an assembly segment and could opt for a mock poll and VVPAT slip count. It has received eight applications from aggrieved candidates, including from the BJP and the Congress.
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