The Uttarakhand High Court on Monday ordered that the Electronic Voting Machines used in six constituencies during the state Assembly elections in February this year be sealed within 48 hours. The six constituencies are Mussoorie, Raipur, Rajpur, Ranipur, Pratappur and Haridwar Rural, ANI reported.
The directive from Justice Sarvesh Kumar Gupta came days after the court had ordered all EVMs used in the polls to the Vikasnagar Assembly seat to be taken into judicial custody. The order was in response to a petition filed by the Congress candidate from the constituency in Dehradun district.
In his please, Navprabhat had alleged that the EVMs had been tampered with and had contributed to his defeat to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Munna Singh Chauhan by more than 6,000 votes.
Elections to the 70-seat Uttarakhand Assembly were held on February 15 with a 68% voter turnout.
Since the BJP’s massive victory in the state Assembly elections in February-March, Opposition parties – most notably the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party – have been questioning the credibility of the voting machines. After receiving a number of complaints claiming that EVMs are vulnerable to hacking, the Election Commission had decided to hold a “hackathon” from the first week of this month to test them.
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