CEC rules out return to ballot paper system

Rejecting the demand of bringing back the ballot paper system of voting, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora on Friday said that there is no question of going back to the bygone era.

"We are not going back to the era of ballot papers. The Honourable Supreme Court has more than once said that ballot paper is a thing of the past," Arora, who is in the city to attend an event at an educational institute, told reporters.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, one of the most vocal critics of electronic voting machines (EVMs), herself gave a call to shun the voting machines and return to ballot papers during Trinamool Congress' Martyrs' Day rally on July 21.

Recently, Maharashtra Navnirman Senachief Raj Thackeray met Banerjee and invited her for a massive campaign against using EVMs in Indian elections in which several opposition leaders, including UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, will be present. IANS