Presidential polls in the African nation of Nigeria are almost over. Officials are now in the process of counting votes. Nearly ninety million people were eligible to cast their votes for appointing the successor of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Nigeria Presidential Elections 2023: Armed men in Lagos city snatch away ballot box

PODUJEVA, Kosovo — Saranda Bogujevci gazed without flinching at a cluster of bullet holes left in the garden wall by a massacre two decades ago that wiped out most of her family and put 16 rounds into her own body.

She said her mind had erased visual memories of the slaughter by the Scorpions, a Serb paramilitary unit. But, she said, “I can still smell the earth mixed with the smell of blood.”

Bogujevci’s against-the-odds survival — she was left for dead in a heap of bodies in her neighbor’s garden — and her subsequent determination to testify against the men who murdered her mother, grandmother, two brothers and four other relatives have made her a symbol of uncommon fortitude in Kosovo, a land still scarred by the traumas of war in the 1990s.

But Bogujevci, 35, is far more than a symbol. She is part of an unlikely wave of women being elected to parliament in Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008 and remains one of the poorest countries in Europe. When final results of a Feb. 14 election were finally announced Thursday in Pristina, the capital, they showed that women had won more seats in parliament than ever before — nearly 40% of the total.

That surge reflects growing discontent with the endemic corruption and bullying ways of a postwar order dominated by swaggering male veterans of the Kosovo Liberation Army, the now disbanded guerrilla force that battled Serbia and paved the way for Kosovo’s declaration of independence.

These elected women have convinced voters that they can stand up to Serbia, which has refused to recognize Kosovo as an independent state, and also confront the corruption, criminality and poor governance that dashed the high hopes that attended the end of Serbian rule.

Nazlie Bala, a women’s activist who was a KLA helper during the war, said Bogujevci’s strength and resolve had made her an emblem of Kosovo’s ordeals and hopes: “She is a survivor. She is strong as stone. She is our truth.”

As Bogujevci takes her place in the new legislature, which will select Kosovo’s president, she wants to see that job, the country’s highest office, go to another woman and fellow wartime survivor, Vjosa Osmani, 38.

Osmani — who has been acting president since November, when the male incumbent was arrested on war crimes charges — is expected to be selected outright in the coming days. Osmani, who ran for election on the same ticket as Bogujevci, won more votes than any other candidate — and also more votes than anyone else since Kosovo started holding elections two decades ago.

Her appeal is particularly strong among young people and women, more than 60% of whom, according to exit polls, voted for a slate of candidates that she led along with Albin Kurti, a longtime champion of progressive causes.

When Osmani fled as a young girl with her parents from their home in northern Kosovo in 1999 to escape pogroms of ethnic Albanians, they were stopped on the road by Serbian soldiers who threatened to kill her father. She had a gun barrel thrust into her mouth when she protested.

Such traumas, she said, “touched every family in Kosovo” and help explain public anger and frustration over the country’s stumbling postwar progress.

Her performance in the election, Osmani said in an interview, shows that “Kosovo is not only ready for a female president, but voted for one,” despite entrenched misogyny and a “patriarchal mentality built up over centuries.”

Osmani was thrust into a leadership role in November when Kosovo’s president, veteran guerrilla commander Hashim Thaci, resigned and was then detained to face war crimes charges at a tribunal in the Netherlands. She took over as acting president because of her position as speaker of parliament.

As speaker, Osmani was regularly insulted and threatened by male rivals. When she disconnected the microphone of an unruly legislator last year, he stormed up to her, screaming curses. A video of the incident circulated online, convincing even skeptics that Osmani, an expert in international law and former professor at the University of Pittsburgh, could hold her own and bring real change.

“This made me realize that we had a chance, that she is not just bargaining for power and will stand up for herself and all of us,” said Elife Krasniqi, a Kosovar anthropologist who researches Balkan women’s movements at the University of Graz in Austria.

A rival would-be president, Ramush Haradinaj, a wartime KLA commander and former nightclub bouncer, said during the campaign that Serbia would cheer if Osmani were selected because it feared a strong male leader like himself, preferring a “weak woman.”

An ally of Haradinaj’s derided Osmani as a “fat woman.” After a public uproar, he said that he had been misunderstood and that he had meant she was “fat in the brain.”

Such appeals to machismo did not help in the election: Haradinaj’s party won only 7% of the vote.

The challenges facing the new female lawmakers are immense. Corruption is rampant, inequality huge and development scarce. Nearly a third of the population is unemployed, with a jobless rate at over 50% for young people and 80% for women, by some counts. Bala, the activist, said that while 60% of university graduates each year are women, 70% of job offers go to men.

Many of the female candidates explicitly targeted those issues in their campaigning.

Doarsa Kica, a 30-year-old lawyer, gave up her job to run on an anti-corruption platform, citing encounters in court with corrupt judges and anger at politicians “who live in million-dollar houses when they only have a $1,000 monthly salary.” Kica joined the ticket of Osmani, her former professor at Pristina University, and won a seat.

The emergence of women in Kosovo politics has been a long, painful process.

Kosovo has had one female president, but that was the result of a backroom deal engineered by the United States, which led a NATO bombing campaign that broke Serbia’s grip on the territory in 1999 and has since played a major role in its affairs.

The United Nations, which administered Kosovo for nearly a decade after the war, also imposed a quota system in 2000 that guaranteed women 30% of the seats in parliament.

But with voters now accustomed to women in parliament and disenchanted with many male politicians, female candidates are winning representation outright. Bogujevci, for instance, first entered parliament in 2017 under the quota system but, after doubling her vote count on Feb. 14, won on her own.

Igballe Rogova, a women’s rights activist, said voters were now looking at female candidates “not as quota women, but as politicians who make promises and keep them and deserve votes.”

Kurti, who leads a center-left party that joined forces with Osmani, has a strong record of promoting women. Briefly prime minister last year, he put women in charge of one-third of Kosovo’s ministries. Previous governments appointed just one or none.

The joint election ticket he headed with Osmani pledged that all state agencies and enterprises would be ordered to enforce hiring equality. Governments dominated by former KLA commanders had for years resisted giving women who had fought in the war the status and pensions accorded to male fighters.

Bala, the activist, who carried a gun in the war, said that many women had taken part in the armed struggle against Serbian forces but were later written out of the script. “A myth was created that only men are strong and can fight,” she said.

(BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM.)

Another fraught issue has been whether rape survivors, of which there were thousands during the war, should be recognized as war victims entitled to a monthly government stipend.

Legislation allowing rape survivors to apply for compensation was passed in 2014 after intense lobbying by Osmani. That was despite demands from some male legislators that women who had been raped in the 1990s get a medical certificate from a doctor — more than 20 years later — to prove that they were not lying.

Such demands, Osmani said, were “ridiculous and very insulting toward women.”

Bogujevci’s road to parliament was also a long one. “I always said I would never enter politics,” she said in an interview in her family’s hometown, Podujeva.

She was flown to Britain for medical treatment soon after the fighting ended, and spent nearly 15 years building a new life in Manchester in the north of England, but started making increasingly frequent trips back to her home region.

She testified against her family’s killers before a court in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, and exhibited an art display she had created chronicling her family’s story. She has now moved back to Kosovo, where strangers stop her on the street to voice admiration and support.

Like most Kosovo towns, Podujeva has a hulking war monument in its center featuring statues of burly men with guns. When Bogujevci visited before the election, however, she immediately became the center of attention, thronged by well-wishers.

Bokim Gashe, standing in the snow outside his wife’s tailoring business, said he would “of course” vote for her.

“She is stronger than all the men around here,” he said.

PODUJEVA, Kosovo — Saranda Bogujevci gazed without flinching at a cluster of bullet holes left in the garden wall by a massacre two decades ago that wiped out most of her family and put 16 rounds into her own body.

PODUJEVA, Kosovo — Saranda Bogujevci gazed without flinching at a cluster of bullet holes left in the garden wall by a massacre two decades ago that wiped out most of her family and put 16 rounds into her own body. She said her mind had erased visual memories of the slaughter by the Scorpions, a Serb paramilitary unit. But, she said, “I can still smell the earth mixed with the smell of blood.” Bogujevci’s against-the-odds survival — she was left for dead in a heap of bodies in her neighbor’s garden — and her subsequent determination to testify against the men who murdered her mother, grandmother, two brothers and four other relatives have made her a symbol of uncommon fortitude in Kosovo, a land still scarred by the traumas of war in the 1990s. But Bogujevci, 35, is far more than a symbol. She is part of an unlikely wave of women being elected to parliament in Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008 and remains one of the poorest countries in Europe. When final results of a Feb. 14 election were finally announced Thursday in Pristina, the capital, they showed that women had won more seats in parliament than ever before — nearly 40% of the total. That surge reflects growing discontent with the endemic corruption and bullying ways of a postwar order dominated by swaggering male veterans of the Kosovo Liberation Army, the now disbanded guerrilla force that battled Serbia and paved the way for Kosovo’s declaration of independence. These elected women have convinced voters that they can stand up to Serbia, which has refused to recognize Kosovo as an independent state, and also confront the corruption, criminality and poor governance that dashed the high hopes that attended the end of Serbian rule. Nazlie Bala, a women’s activist who was a KLA helper during the war, said Bogujevci’s strength and resolve had made her an emblem of Kosovo’s ordeals and hopes: “She is a survivor. She is strong as stone. She is our truth.” As Bogujevci takes her place in the new legislature, which will select Kosovo’s president, she wants to see that job, the country’s highest office, go to another woman and fellow wartime survivor, Vjosa Osmani, 38. Osmani — who has been acting president since November, when the male incumbent was arrested on war crimes charges — is expected to be selected outright in the coming days. Osmani, who ran for election on the same ticket as Bogujevci, won more votes than any other candidate — and also more votes than anyone else since Kosovo started holding elections two decades ago. Her appeal is particularly strong among young people and women, more than 60% of whom, according to exit polls, voted for a slate of candidates that she led along with Albin Kurti, a longtime champion of progressive causes. When Osmani fled as a young girl with her parents from their home in northern Kosovo in 1999 to escape pogroms of ethnic Albanians, they were stopped on the road by Serbian soldiers who threatened to kill her father. She had a gun barrel thrust into her mouth when she protested. Such traumas, she said, “touched every family in Kosovo” and help explain public anger and frustration over the country’s stumbling postwar progress. Her performance in the election, Osmani said in an interview, shows that “Kosovo is not only ready for a female president, but voted for one,” despite entrenched misogyny and a “patriarchal mentality built up over centuries.” Osmani was thrust into a leadership role in November when Kosovo’s president, veteran guerrilla commander Hashim Thaci, resigned and was then detained to face war crimes charges at a tribunal in the Netherlands. She took over as acting president because of her position as speaker of parliament. As speaker, Osmani was regularly insulted and threatened by male rivals. When she disconnected the microphone of an unruly legislator last year, he stormed up to her, screaming curses. A video of the incident circulated online, convincing even skeptics that Osmani, an expert in international law and former professor at the University of Pittsburgh, could hold her own and bring real change. “This made me realize that we had a chance, that she is not just bargaining for power and will stand up for herself and all of us,” said Elife Krasniqi, a Kosovar anthropologist who researches Balkan women’s movements at the University of Graz in Austria. A rival would-be president, Ramush Haradinaj, a wartime KLA commander and former nightclub bouncer, said during the campaign that Serbia would cheer if Osmani were selected because it feared a strong male leader like himself, preferring a “weak woman.” An ally of Haradinaj’s derided Osmani as a “fat woman.” After a public uproar, he said that he had been misunderstood and that he had meant she was “fat in the brain.” Such appeals to machismo did not help in the election: Haradinaj’s party won only 7% of the vote. The challenges facing the new female lawmakers are immense. Corruption is rampant, inequality huge and development scarce. Nearly a third of the population is unemployed, with a jobless rate at over 50% for young people and 80% for women, by some counts. Bala, the activist, said that while 60% of university graduates each year are women, 70% of job offers go to men. Many of the female candidates explicitly targeted those issues in their campaigning. Doarsa Kica, a 30-year-old lawyer, gave up her job to run on an anti-corruption platform, citing encounters in court with corrupt judges and anger at politicians “who live in million-dollar houses when they only have a $1,000 monthly salary.” Kica joined the ticket of Osmani, her former professor at Pristina University, and won a seat. The emergence of women in Kosovo politics has been a long, painful process. Kosovo has had one female president, but that was the result of a backroom deal engineered by the United States, which led a NATO bombing campaign that broke Serbia’s grip on the territory in 1999 and has since played a major role in its affairs. The United Nations, which administered Kosovo for nearly a decade after the war, also imposed a quota system in 2000 that guaranteed women 30% of the seats in parliament. But with voters now accustomed to women in parliament and disenchanted with many male politicians, female candidates are winning representation outright. Bogujevci, for instance, first entered parliament in 2017 under the quota system but, after doubling her vote count on Feb. 14, won on her own. Igballe Rogova, a women’s rights activist, said voters were now looking at female candidates “not as quota women, but as politicians who make promises and keep them and deserve votes.” Kurti, who leads a center-left party that joined forces with Osmani, has a strong record of promoting women. Briefly prime minister last year, he put women in charge of one-third of Kosovo’s ministries. Previous governments appointed just one or none. The joint election ticket he headed with Osmani pledged that all state agencies and enterprises would be ordered to enforce hiring equality. Governments dominated by former KLA commanders had for years resisted giving women who had fought in the war the status and pensions accorded to male fighters. Bala, the activist, who carried a gun in the war, said that many women had taken part in the armed struggle against Serbian forces but were later written out of the script. “A myth was created that only men are strong and can fight,” she said. (BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM.) Another fraught issue has been whether rape survivors, of which there were thousands during the war, should be recognized as war victims entitled to a monthly government stipend. Legislation allowing rape survivors to apply for compensation was passed in 2014 after intense lobbying by Osmani. That was despite demands from some male legislators that women who had been raped in the 1990s get a medical certificate from a doctor — more than 20 years later — to prove that they were not lying. Such demands, Osmani said, were “ridiculous and very insulting toward women.” Bogujevci’s road to parliament was also a long one. “I always said I would never enter politics,” she said in an interview in her family’s hometown, Podujeva. She was flown to Britain for medical treatment soon after the fighting ended, and spent nearly 15 years building a new life in Manchester in the north of England, but started making increasingly frequent trips back to her home region. She testified against her family’s killers before a court in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, and exhibited an art display she had created chronicling her family’s story. She has now moved back to Kosovo, where strangers stop her on the street to voice admiration and support. Like most Kosovo towns, Podujeva has a hulking war monument in its center featuring statues of burly men with guns. When Bogujevci visited before the election, however, she immediately became the center of attention, thronged by well-wishers. Bokim Gashe, standing in the snow outside his wife’s tailoring business, said he would “of course” vote for her. “She is stronger than all the men around here,” he said.

In a land dominated by ex-rebels, Kosovo women find power at the ballot box

As Nevada allowed the state to&nbsp;send mail-in ballots to every voter for the upcoming November Presidential elections, the US President Donald Trump has threatened to sue to the state.

Democratic lawmakers passed the bill on Sunday in the US state of Nevada. However, Trump feels this was "&nbsp;an illegal late night coup".

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/pathetic-us-president-trump-lashes-out-at-virus-coordinator-317921">Also read| 'Pathetic!': US President Trump lashes out at virus coordinator</a>

Trump&nbsp;has been opposing protesting against mail-in ballots since the idea was tossed open for discussion. The idea behind this was to allow people to vote without having for them to step out of the house amid the pandemic. Trump, however, feels that this will only bring in more corruption.

"In an illegal late night coup, Nevada’s clubhouse Governor made it impossible for Republicans to win the state. Post Office could never handle the Traffic of Mail-In Votes without preparation. Using Covid to steal the state. See you in Court!," he tweeted.

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
In an illegal late night coup, Nevada’s clubhouse Governor made it impossible for Republicans to win the state. Post Office could never handle the Traffic of Mail-In Votes without preparation. Using Covid to steal the state. See you in Court! <a href="https://t.co/cNSPINgCY7">https://t.co/cNSPINgCY7</a>
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1290250416278532096?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 3, 2020</a></blockquote>
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After, or if, the Nevada state Governor Steve Sisolak signs the bill, the state of Nevada will become third state to opt for mail-in ballots this year after California and Vermont decided to prioritise their citizens' health.&nbsp;Utah, Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington have been following mail-in ballot since few years now, making Nevada the seventh state in total.

Trump on Monday said he has the right to issue an executive order on mail-in voting but he has't gotten to it yet.

Nevada mailed ballots to voters ahead of its primary election in June and encouraged residents not to risk in-person voting.

Nevada Governor and Trump's administration have not issued a comment on Trump's threat to sue, as of now.

(With inputs from agencies)

As Nevada allowed the state to send mail-in ballots to every voter for the upcoming November Presidential elections, the US President Donald Trump has threatened to sue to the state.

As Nevada allowed the state to send mail-in ballots to every voter for the upcoming November Presidential elections, the US President Donald Trump has threatened to sue to the state. Democratic lawmakers passed the bill on Sunday in the US state of Nevada. However, Trump feels this was " an illegal late night coup". Also read| 'Pathetic!': US President Trump lashes out at virus coordinator Trump has been opposing protesting against mail-in ballots since the idea was tossed open for discussion. The idea behind this was to allow people to vote without having for them to step out of the house amid the pandemic. Trump, however, feels that this will only bring in more corruption. "In an illegal late night coup, Nevada’s clubhouse Governor made it impossible for Republicans to win the state. Post Office could never handle the Traffic of Mail-In Votes without preparation. Using Covid to steal the state. See you in Court!," he tweeted. In an illegal late night coup, Nevada’s clubhouse Governor made it impossible for Republicans to win the state. Post Office could never handle the Traffic of Mail-In Votes without preparation. Using Covid to steal the state. See you in Court! https://t.co/cNSPINgCY7 — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 3, 2020 × After, or if, the Nevada state Governor Steve Sisolak signs the bill, the state of Nevada will become third state to opt for mail-in ballots this year after California and Vermont decided to prioritise their citizens' health. Utah, Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington have been following mail-in ballot since few years now, making Nevada the seventh state in total. Trump on Monday said he has the right to issue an executive order on mail-in voting but he has't gotten to it yet. Nevada mailed ballots to voters ahead of its primary election in June and encouraged residents not to risk in-person voting. Nevada Governor and Trump's administration have not issued a comment on Trump's threat to sue, as of now. (With inputs from agencies)

Trump threatens to sue Nevada for mail-in ballots

The BJP Tuesday dubbed allegations of rigging in the 2014 parliamentary polls, made at a London press conference, a "Congress-sponsored conspiracy" designed to "defame" Indian democracy and the Election Commission.

A day after a self-proclaimed cyber expert alleged at the press event that the BJP had won election by hacking into Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), the ruling party launched a stinging attack on the Congress and said it has already started looking for an "alibi" for its imminent loss in the coming Lok Sabha polls.

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/evm-hacking-claim-centre-alleges-congress-organised-hackathon-in-london-opposition-calls-for-switch-to-ballot-box-191969">Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad</a> told reporters that the Indian Journalists' Association, which had organised the conference, is headed by Ashis Ray who, he claimed, is a "committed Congressman" and has been singing paeans in support of Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

He contributes to National Herald, a Congress mouthpiece, "campaigns" for the Congress on social media and has often attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Prasad claimed, adding that he had also organised Gandhi's public event in London.

There has been no reaction from Ray to the BJP's comments so far.

Targeting the Congress, Prasad questioned the presence of its leader Kapil Sibal at the event.

"What was Sibal doing there? In what capacity was he present? My charge is that he was there to monitor the event for the Congress. It was a Congress-sponsored conspiracy designed to defame Indian democracy and its Election Commission," Prasad said, also calling it a Congress-scripted exercise.

The BJP leader also dismissed Sibal's claim that he was present in his personal capacity, saying he was intelligent enough to know the implications of his being there. He claimed that Sibal went there by deliberate design.&nbsp;

"Whether it is the stoppage of the work for the construction of Ram temple, talk of the abolition of law on sedition or impeachment campaign of the Chief Justice of India -- all being done by Kapil Sibal. He is the one who is trying to disgrace Election Commission," Prasad said. 
 
He said the invite for the event had claimed that the hacking of EVMs will be shown but the "gentleman" appeared via Skype from the US wearing a mask.&nbsp;

Ridiculing the London event as a circus and political stunt, the BJP leader said he had never heard of Syed Shuja, who claimed to be a cyber expert and made the outlandish and explosive allegations at the press conference, even though he, as Union IT minister, keeps in touch with experts and developments in the field.&nbsp;

"I could not understand this drama. He (Suja) offered no proof and nor did he present himself to questioning by the media. No evidence, no corroboration and no question and such big allegations were levelled," he said.

Prasad alleged it was a Congress-sponsored conspiracy and asked if opposition parties wanted to revert to the use of ballot papers in elections, alleging that the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress had used them to rig local polls in the state last year as the government did not use EVMs.

"This is a part of a well thought-out conspiracy, this is Congress's Cambridge Analytica part-2," Prasad said.

The matter of Cambridge Analytica allegedly harvesting people's personal information from social media had already been sent to the CBI, he said.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;

The Congress is the "biggest culprit" when it comes to weakening institutions while it levels this allegation at "our leader", he said, apparently referring to the opposition party's accusation against Prime Minister Narendra Modi of attacking institutions.&nbsp;

He also expressed his party's "deep pain" at the allegation in the London event that Union minister Gopinath Munde was "murdered" because he was aware of the 2014 poll "rigging" and was set to disclose it. He dismissed it as rubbish.

Munde had died in a road accident in New Delhi weeks after the BJP won the 2014 elections.

Name of a deceased person was used as he could no longer respond, Prasad said, adding that an AIIMS doctor, who was involved in Munde's postmortem, had Monday stated that the reason of his death was a neck injury suffered in the accident.&nbsp;

Congress president Rahul Gandhi should answer as to how many more alibies he was going to invent for his party's loss in the Lok Sabha polls, Prasad asked.

The London event was also meant to defame the popular mandate in 2014, he said, noting that it was not the BJP but the Congress which was then in power. The BJP had swept to power in 2014.

The Union minister said the EVMs have been in use since 1996 and non-BJP parties have won so many elections since them.

"When the BJP wins, then the EVMs become suspect. What kind of logic is this," he asked, adding that there cannot be a more "shameful" argument which is designed to compromise the Indian electoral process.

No political party or expert had taken up the open challenge thrown by the EC in 2017 for hacking EVMs, he said, adding it's shameful that a political party that had ruled the country for close to six decades is "sponsoring" such shameful attacks on the commission.

The Supreme Court had also dismissed in November last a petition seeking re-introduction of ballot papers in elections.

 
&nbsp;

The BJP Tuesday dubbed allegations of rigging in the 2014 parliamentary polls, made at a London press conference, a "Congress-sponsored conspiracy" designed to "defame" Indian democracy and the Election Commission.

The BJP Tuesday dubbed allegations of rigging in the 2014 parliamentary polls, made at a London press conference, a "Congress-sponsored conspiracy" designed to "defame" Indian democracy and the Election Commission. A day after a self-proclaimed cyber expert alleged at the press event that the BJP had won election by hacking into Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), the ruling party launched a stinging attack on the Congress and said it has already started looking for an "alibi" for its imminent loss in the coming Lok Sabha polls. Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters that the Indian Journalists' Association, which had organised the conference, is headed by Ashis Ray who, he claimed, is a "committed Congressman" and has been singing paeans in support of Congress president Rahul Gandhi. He contributes to National Herald, a Congress mouthpiece, "campaigns" for the Congress on social media and has often attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Prasad claimed, adding that he had also organised Gandhi's public event in London. There has been no reaction from Ray to the BJP's comments so far. Targeting the Congress, Prasad questioned the presence of its leader Kapil Sibal at the event. "What was Sibal doing there? In what capacity was he present? My charge is that he was there to monitor the event for the Congress. It was a Congress-sponsored conspiracy designed to defame Indian democracy and its Election Commission," Prasad said, also calling it a Congress-scripted exercise. The BJP leader also dismissed Sibal's claim that he was present in his personal capacity, saying he was intelligent enough to know the implications of his being there. He claimed that Sibal went there by deliberate design. "Whether it is the stoppage of the work for the construction of Ram temple, talk of the abolition of law on sedition or impeachment campaign of the Chief Justice of India -- all being done by Kapil Sibal. He is the one who is trying to disgrace Election Commission," Prasad said. He said the invite for the event had claimed that the hacking of EVMs will be shown but the "gentleman" appeared via Skype from the US wearing a mask. Ridiculing the London event as a circus and political stunt, the BJP leader said he had never heard of Syed Shuja, who claimed to be a cyber expert and made the outlandish and explosive allegations at the press conference, even though he, as Union IT minister, keeps in touch with experts and developments in the field. "I could not understand this drama. He (Suja) offered no proof and nor did he present himself to questioning by the media. No evidence, no corroboration and no question and such big allegations were levelled," he said. Prasad alleged it was a Congress-sponsored conspiracy and asked if opposition parties wanted to revert to the use of ballot papers in elections, alleging that the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress had used them to rig local polls in the state last year as the government did not use EVMs. "This is a part of a well thought-out conspiracy, this is Congress's Cambridge Analytica part-2," Prasad said. The matter of Cambridge Analytica allegedly harvesting people's personal information from social media had already been sent to the CBI, he said. The Congress is the "biggest culprit" when it comes to weakening institutions while it levels this allegation at "our leader", he said, apparently referring to the opposition party's accusation against Prime Minister Narendra Modi of attacking institutions. He also expressed his party's "deep pain" at the allegation in the London event that Union minister Gopinath Munde was "murdered" because he was aware of the 2014 poll "rigging" and was set to disclose it. He dismissed it as rubbish. Munde had died in a road accident in New Delhi weeks after the BJP won the 2014 elections. Name of a deceased person was used as he could no longer respond, Prasad said, adding that an AIIMS doctor, who was involved in Munde's postmortem, had Monday stated that the reason of his death was a neck injury suffered in the accident. Congress president Rahul Gandhi should answer as to how many more alibies he was going to invent for his party's loss in the Lok Sabha polls, Prasad asked. The London event was also meant to defame the popular mandate in 2014, he said, noting that it was not the BJP but the Congress which was then in power. The BJP had swept to power in 2014. The Union minister said the EVMs have been in use since 1996 and non-BJP parties have won so many elections since them. "When the BJP wins, then the EVMs become suspect. What kind of logic is this," he asked, adding that there cannot be a more "shameful" argument which is designed to compromise the Indian electoral process. No political party or expert had taken up the open challenge thrown by the EC in 2017 for hacking EVMs, he said, adding it's shameful that a political party that had ruled the country for close to six decades is "sponsoring" such shameful attacks on the commission. The Supreme Court had also dismissed in November last a petition seeking re-introduction of ballot papers in elections.

EVM hacking claim a Congress-sponsored conspiracy to defame Indian democracy: BJP 

A day after the assembly election in Rajasthan, two officials, Abdul Rafeeq and Patwari Naval Singh, were suspended from the state on grounds of negligence with the EVM machine.

A ballot unit was found lying on road in Shahabad area of Kishanganj Assembly Constituency in Baran district of Rajasthan on Friday.

The ballot unit which was later recovered and has now been kept in a strong room in Kishanganj.

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WATCH?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WATCH</a>: A ballot unit was found lying on road in Shahabad area of Kishanganj Assembly Constituency in Baran district of Rajasthan yesterday. Two officials have been suspended on grounds of negligence. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RajasthanElections?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#RajasthanElections</a> <a href="https://t.co/yq7F1mbCFV">pic.twitter.com/yq7F1mbCFV</a>
— ANI (@ANI) <a href="https://twitter.com/ANI/status/1071252930068705280?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
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The suspension order was issued by District Election Officer and Collector S P Singh after a fact-finding report was filed by the returning officer, Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Kishanganj in connection with the incident.&nbsp;

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Two officials have been suspended in connection with the incident where a ballot unit was found lying on road in Shahabad area of Kishanganj Assembly Constituency in Baran district of Rajasthan. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RajasthanElections?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#RajasthanElections</a> <a href="https://t.co/FvCOgdkgof">pic.twitter.com/FvCOgdkgof</a>
— ANI (@ANI) <a href="https://twitter.com/ANI/status/1071249838849884160?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
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&nbsp;The polling in Rajasthan was held in 51,687 polling booths out of which 259 were managed exclusively by women officials and security personnel.&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)

A day after the assembly election in Rajasthan, two officials, Abdul Rafeeq and Patwari Naval Singh, were suspended from the state on grounds of negligence with the EVM machine.

A day after the assembly election in Rajasthan, two officials, Abdul Rafeeq and Patwari Naval Singh, were suspended from the state on grounds of negligence with the EVM machine. A ballot unit was found lying on road in Shahabad area of Kishanganj Assembly Constituency in Baran district of Rajasthan on Friday. The ballot unit which was later recovered and has now been kept in a strong room in Kishanganj. #WATCH: A ballot unit was found lying on road in Shahabad area of Kishanganj Assembly Constituency in Baran district of Rajasthan yesterday. Two officials have been suspended on grounds of negligence. #RajasthanElections pic.twitter.com/yq7F1mbCFV — ANI (@ANI) December 8, 2018 × The suspension order was issued by District Election Officer and Collector S P Singh after a fact-finding report was filed by the returning officer, Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Kishanganj in connection with the incident. Two officials have been suspended in connection with the incident where a ballot unit was found lying on road in Shahabad area of Kishanganj Assembly Constituency in Baran district of Rajasthan. #RajasthanElections pic.twitter.com/FvCOgdkgof — ANI (@ANI) December 8, 2018 × The polling in Rajasthan was held in 51,687 polling booths out of which 259 were managed exclusively by women officials and security personnel. (With inputs from agencies)

Rajasthan: 2 officials suspended after ballot units found on road

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