KOLKATA: Ruling out any possibility of bringing back ballot papers for elections, Chief Election Commissioner O.P. Rawat on Saturday said the EVMs were being made a “scapegoat” by political parties. “There is absolutely nothing about the integrity of the system… However, time and again whenever there are eruptions on this, we clarify the issue,” Rawat said at a session on “Electoral Integrity and Role of Money in Elections” organised by the Merchants’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry here. He said the panel had last July announced at an all-party meeting that all elections would be conducted using EVMs coupled with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines. VVPAT is being used along with EVMs for enhanced transparency in the voting process, he said. “EVM has been made an easy ‘scapegoat’ by political parties because it cannot speak and political parties need to blame someone for their defeat,” he said, and claimed that India’s conduct of free and fair elections was admired all across the world. “It is creditworthy that despite such a large electorate, the Election Commission is able to publish results in just a few hours.” IANS