Lucknow: Latching on to the claim by a US-based ‘cyber expert’ that the 2014 Lok Sabha elections were ‘rigged’, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav questioned Tuesday the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) when even the more advanced nations were not using them.
Akhilesh asserted that the BJP government was weakening democratic institutions. “It is using them to suppress dissent and the voice of the opposition,” he said.
“Why does a country like Japan, which is very advanced in science and technology, is not using the EVMs? The question should be raised among the nation’s 130 crore people,” the SP chief added.
Akhilesh’s remarks come after a self-proclaimed cyber expert, a US-based Indian, claimed at a London press conference that the last Lok Sabha elections were ‘rigged’ through the EVMs.
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Mayawati, who is Yadav’s alliance partner in the state, had also issued a statement criticising the EVMs, a day after the London press conference. She suggested that paper ballots should be used in the next election.
PTI
