The DMK has filed a writ petition in the Madras High Court seeking a direction to the Election Commission of India (EC) to ensure that the balloting units in Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) are connected directly with the control units without placing the VVPAT printers in between the two units, as was done in third generation M3 EVMs.
The party also sought a direction to the EC to lay down procedures for approval of the EVMs. It also called for a direction to formulate the guidelines to be followed by Returning Officers while dealing with applications made by election agents to count the paper slips collected as part of the Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) system.
Filing an affidavit on behalf of the party, its organisation secretary R.S. Bharathi said that elections were conducted only through the conventional paper ballot system between 1950 and 1990. The Representation of the People Act, 1951, was amended only in 1989 to insert Section 61A, which permits the use of voting machines in elections, and the amendment came into force from March 15, 1989.
