Post the event where Supreme Court junked some opposition parties' review plea for 50 percent VVPAT verification in the Lok Sabha polls, Andhra Pradesh CM, N Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday announced that will not give up the fight for transparency in the election process.
21 opposition leaders, including Naidu, National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah, CPI leader D Raja, and Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi, had together filed a plea in an attempt to seek review of the Sc’s April 8th order directing the Election Commission to increase random matching of VVPAT slips with EVMs to five polling booths per assembly segment. The parties demanded that the number be raised to 50% of total booths.
In his statement, Naidu said, "We respect the Supreme Court's order...but the party will not give up and continue its fight for transparency in the election process in the country. It's absolutely critical for the EC to work transparently to ensure free and fair elections.”
He then added that the Election Commission should be responsible for the honest execution of the Supreme Court's April 8 order and in case of any discrepancy, voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) slips should be matched with EVM results in the entire constituency.
On EC's statement that the counting of all VVPAT slips might end up in delaying the results by five days, Naidu replied that it's just a matter of a few days and that the poll panel should choose credibility and transparency over other things.