Technical snag trips parliament voting system

A technical snag developed in the automatic vote recording system in the Lok Sabha today as Speaker Meira Kumar asked MPs to cast their votes on the cut motion moved by Communist Party of India leader Gurudas Das Gupta.

A technical snag developed in the automatic vote recording system in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday as Speaker Meira Kumar asked MPs to cast their votes on the cut motion moved by Communist Party of India (CPI) leader Gurudas Das Gupta.

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More than a dozen foreigners were watching the house proceedings from the visitors' gallery as the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government faced a threat of a cut motion by the opposition parties minus the Samajwadi Party and the Rashttriya Janata Dal (RJD).

After failing to rectify the technical snag, the house unanimously agreed to opt for the old way of voting using voting slips.

"Still machine is not working, slips should be given and division (on the cut motion) could be taken place," said Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj.

Agreeing with Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal's suggestion, the opposition also agreed to "put all cut motion together" for division.

A computerised integrated system on microphone management, simultaneous interpretation and automatic vote recording in Lok Sabha chamber was inducted from the 12th session of the tenth Lok Sabha.

The automatic vote recording system can be used for open voting wherein the names of members who vote "for" or "against" a question or "abstain" in the voting are recorded.

It could also be used for secret balloting as well as for quorum (automatic counting of members present in the chamber)purposes.