Law Minister: Poll panel's trust in technology should be respected

Ravi Shankar Prasad

New Delhi: Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday backed the Election Commission over the use of electronic voting machines in elections, saying that the poll panels trust in technology should be respected.

Addressing a National Voters' Day function, he said that there was a need to respect the sanctity of institutions.

Prasad said that EVMs had given different results at different times and while the BJP has won elections, so have other parties.

"The Election Commission's trust in technology needs to be respected," he said.

The minister added that violence in elections "has become a thing of the past" due to the foresight of the poll panel.

Prasad's remarks came a day after Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora rejected the demand of major opposition parties to go back to the era of ballot papers and asserted that it cannot be "bullied or coerced" into discarding the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and VVPATs.

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