'India to provide EVMs to Egypt'

There may be lot of debate in India over efficacy of the Electronic Voting Machines but Egypt, which is holding elections after Hosni Mubarak’s ouster, is willing to try the “wonder machine --- the EVMs” --- in the country wide polls later this year.

Updated on: Apr 22, 2011, 19:30:10 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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There may be lot of debate in India over efficacy of the Electronic Voting Machines but Egypt, which is holding elections after Hosni Mubarak’s ouster, is willing to try the “wonder machine --- the EVMs” --- in the country wide polls later this year.

Egypt will not be the first country to use Indian EVMs. They have been successfully deployed in Afghanistan general elections. The Election Commission has also provided inputs to Nepal, Bhutan, Ethopia and Mexico on use of EVMs in making the election process more fair and transparent.

Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi on Friday offered to provide EVMs to Egypt for conducting the elections. "India is glad to lend Egypt its machines since there is not enough time left before elections," PTI quoted Quraishi as telling reporters in Cairo. This was after his meeting with Egyptian Minister of Justice and Communication.

India has about 14 lakh EVMs, one-third of which are being used in state elections elections in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam, Kerala and Puducherry. But, other can be used, a commission official said.

Quraishi is heading a five member team to Egypt to apprise the country’s officials on success of EVMs in India and the country’s electoral process. This is after newly formed government in Egypt had asked the Election Commission’s help in conducting the elections slated for November this year.

India has offered to help Egypt in conducting elections but has refused to be part of an international team to monitor them. “India does not support international monitoring of elections and hence would not participate in monitoring elections in Egypt,” the CEC said.

Egypt's military rulers had last month announced an interim constitution and said presidential elections would be held by November after Mubarak was ousted in a popular uprising in January.

The CEC, who termed the EVMs as wonder machine of democracy, said it had revolutionized elections in India. He has already initiated measures to upgrade the EVMs before next general elections.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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