Amidst the ongoing 2024 general elections, a social media post with a video showing alleged BJP supporters tampering with VVPAT slips in EVM machines is circulating widely (here & here). The video shows individuals extracting VVPAT slips. In this article, we examine the veracity of the claims linked to the video.
Claim: Recent video from 2024 depicting BJP supporters tampering with VVPAT slips in EVM machines.
Fact: The video is from 2022. At that time, officials verified that the footage does not show any misconduct. Instead, it captures workers adhering to the standard protocol of removing VVPAT slips from their respective machines and placing them into a black envelope for storage. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
The viral video does show individuals extracting VVPAT slips and placing them in another envelope, however, the individuals are not BJP supporters. The people seen in the video are doing it as per the official guidelines. Moreover, the video is not related to the ongoing 2024 elections but is an old video from 2022. We could not find any reports about such irregularities during the ongoing 2024 elections.
When the same video went viral claiming EVM fraud, during the Gujarat elections in 2022, the Deputy Election Officer of Bhavnagar clarified that the video did not depict any wrongdoing; instead, the workers were simply following established procedures, as reported by BOOM.
Additionally, the District Magistrate and Collector of Bhavnagar, D.K. Parekh, stated that the video was recorded by an unauthorized individual and they initiated an inquiry into the incident. He also emphasized that there is no foul play in the process shown in the video.
What do the conduct of election rules say?
Section 94(b) of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, states that subject to any direction to the contrary is given by the Election Commission or by a competent court or tribunal, election-related papers such as used and unused ballot papers, counterfoils of used ballot papers, marked copies of electoral rolls, and registers of voters shall be retained for one year. However, this rule does not specifically mention VVPAT slips. Section 94(c), which addresses all other election papers not mentioned above (including VVPAT slips), states that they can be retained for a period as directed by the Election Commission unless the Election petition/Court case is Pending.
Therefore, following the EC guidelines regarding the management of VVPAT slips post-vote count (here), it can be deduced that the video in the post does not show the destruction of VVPAT slips or any related election materials. Rather, it illustrates the extraction of VVPAT slips from their respective machines and their subsequent storage in a black envelope.
To sum up, an old video of VVPAT slip handling process as per ECI guidelines is wrongly claimed to show foul play in current elections.
