APPLYING FRAGRANCE, GLUE ON EVM BUTTONS TO BE TREATED AS TAMPERING: ELECTION COMMISSION OFFICIALS

PTI, April 21, 2026, New Delhi  : Amid claims that some political workers apply fragrance on EVM buttons to find out whether a vote has been cast in their favour, Election Commission officials on Tuesday said such acts will be considered as “tampering”, which is an electoral offence.

Ahead of the April 23 voting in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, officials said that if a polling station presiding officer comes across such “mischief”, the sector officer or the returning officer has to be notified.

“The EC will not hesitate to take criminal action and can order a re-poll,” an EC functionary said.

The presiding officers of all booths are to check and ensure that all candidate buttons on the EVM are clearly visible and no candidate button is covered with tape, glue or any other material.

“No colour or ink or perfume or other chemical can be put on the candidate button of the ballot unit (on which voters cast their vote) to reveal the secrecy of votes,” the functionary underlined.

They informed that if such an instance is noticed, the presiding officer will immediately inform the sector officer or returning officer.

“All such cases are likely to fall under tampering/interfering with the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM), which is an electoral offence,” another official said.