Malappuram district collector rejects UDF allegations on EVM strong rooms

Kozhikode: Malappuram district collector and district election officer Vinay Goyal clarified on Saturday that the allegations regarding handling of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) strong rooms in the district are baseless and factually incorrect.Goyal said that all EVMs used for polling in the district were sealed immediately after the close of poll and were securely shifted on the very same day to the respective constituency strong rooms which were then securely sealed by the respective returning officers in the presence of candidates and political party representatives. "The entire process has been completely videographed and comprehensive CCTV surveillance has been put in place. These strong rooms are being safeguarded under a three-tier security system, including a permanent deployment of Central Armed Police Forces personnels," he said. The clarification comes in response to allegations by UDF that district election officer had ordered the opening of strong rooms in violation of election protocols. UDF district chairman K P Abdul Majeed had claimed that the collector issued instructions through a WhatsApp group of returning officers to remove unused VVPAT machines from the strong rooms. He further alleged that a follow-up message was sent retracting the directive after the issue drew public attention. Refuting the claims, the collector clarified that only the unpolled reserve EVMs which have not been used at any point of the polling process which are, as per established procedure, usually transferred to the district EVM warehouse after duly informing representatives of political parties. "This is a standard procedure followed in all elections as per ECI guidelines," the district collector said.