The CPM asked the Election Commission to hold a meeting of all parties and technical experts to clear doubts and allay apprehensions about the use of electronic voting machines.

"In the recent period, a number of questions have been raised about the reliability of the EVMs in polling process. Amongst the concerns are the possibility of tampering with the programme chip embedded in the EVMs and further the lack of any verifiable record of the vote cast by a voter," party General Secretary Prakash Karat said in a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla.

He said there were some countries, having the requisite technological know-how, that had stopped the use of EVMs or prescribed conditions for their use.

"It is important that all doubts about the use of the EVMs for voting are removed, so that people's faith in the democratic system is not affected," Karat said.

Asking the Election Commission to take steps "to clear all doubts and allay apprehensions," he urged the CEC to convene "an all-party meeting along with technical experts to discuss in depth the issue of use of EVMs in the electoral process".