PRESS RELEASE

AN APPEAL TO POLITICAL PARTIES & TO THE CITIZENS OF INDIA

We, the undersigned, are deeply perturbed and concerned with reports coming in from various part of the country of EVM machines and even a VVPAT being transported in unauthorized trucks and private vehicles, the alleged attempts to exchange the EVM machines from strong rooms and replace them with alternate EVM machines. There are also videos of EVMs being stored in unauthorized storage houses and shops.

While the election commission has denied over years that EVMs can be tampered, many of us have been raising the issue of EVM tampering from Gujarat 2002 election onwards.

We are concerned that Voters’ Verdict sealed inside the EVM machines is sought to be tampered. We strongly believe that the responsibility of ensuring that the Voters’ Verdict is not changed and manipulated lies with the Election Commission. However, the role of the Election Commission can no longer said to be neutral, which is visible from the internal news coming out of the Election Commission, where the commission refused to include the dissent note of Ashok Lavasa in commission’s orders.

We are appealing to political parties as well as the ordinary citizens of India who have fought for the last five years against the authoritarian communal fascist regime to ensure the safety of the EVM machines.

We request you to :

1. Guard the Strong Rooms round the clock

2. Do not allow any unauthorized EVMs to be brought into the strong rooms.

3. Report any suspicious activity immediately on social media

4. On the day of the counting the representatives of political parties must
a. Check that the EVMs are sealed before the counting begins
b. Check the Number of the EVM machine and tally it with the list of EVM machines in which voting was done in your particular booth.

5. Report to the media, party and local authorities and stop the process of declaration of result and demand re-polling.

We appeal to the security personnel, the law enforcement agencies to ensure that on May 23rd the counting passes off peacefully and no violence is tolerated.

Campaign to go back to ballot like all developed countries will continue after the formation of the new government.

Signed

Aditya Mukherjee, academician, historian, Delhi
Anand Mazgaonkar, Gujarat
Annie Raja, National General Secretary, NFIW, Delhi
Anshu Malviya, poet, UP
Aruna Roy, MKSS, Rajasthan
Danial Mazgaonkar, Gujarat
Dev Desai, Social activist, Gujarat
Dhruv Sangari, musician, singer, Delhi
Dinesh Abrol, former scientist, Delhi
Dipen Desai, Gujarat
Gauhar Raza, former scientist, poet, Delhi
Jyotibhai Desai, Gujarat
Kamal Krishna Vaish, UP
Kavita Krishna, AIPWA, Delhi
Koninika Ray, NFIW, Delhi
Mahesh Pandya, social & environmental activist, Gujarat
Manjula Pradeep, social activist, Gujarat
Michael Mazgaonkar, Gujarat
Mridula Mukherjee, academician, historian, Delhi
Neeta Mahadev, Social activist, Gujarat
Nikhil Dey, MKSS, Rajasthan
Padma Singh, National President, Jagriti Samaj, UP
Parth Trivedi, Gujarat
Prakash Shah, writer, Gujarat
PVS Kumar, former scientist, Delhi
Rahul Kapoor, research scholar, Delhi
Ram Puniyani, writer, social activist, Mumbai
Ravi Kiran Jain, National President, PUCL
Raza Mehdi, Engineer, Delhi
Rohit Shukla, academician & social activist, Gujarat
Ruth Zothanpuli, activist, Delhi
Shabnam Hashmi, social activist, Delhi
Sheba George, social activist, Gujarat
SM Abbas, Librarian, Delhi
Sohail Hashmi, writer, filmmaker, Delhi
Subodh Mohanti, former Director, Vigyan Prasar, Delhi
Swati Desai, Gujarat
Syeda Hameed, writer, former member, Planning Commission of India, Delhi
Tazeen Mohammed, academician, Delhi
Zafar Bakht, social activist, UP