EC to hold hackathon from June 3
NEW DELHI: The Election Commission on Saturdaychallenged political parties to prove their claim that electronic voting machines can be tampered with, inviting them to an event starting June 3 that could potentially end a raging debate over the devices.
The panel ruled out reverting to paper ballots but reiterated that the voter-verifiable paper audit trail–short for the commonly used VVPAT – will be used along with EVMs in all future elections to ensure transparency. VVPAT records the candidate and symbol a person voted for in a paper receipt. But the EC’s guidelines for the hackathon drew a snide remark from Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which said the poll panel “wants us to cross the sea with our hands and legs tied”. The AAP is among several political parties which claim the EVMs can be hacked to show results in favour of a particular party.
Kejriwal and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Mayawati had even blamed EVMs for the BJP’s sweeping victory inUtt ar Pradesh recently, hinting at mass tampering of the machines. The EC says the charges are unverified and have maintained that its EV Ms are tamper-proof.
EVMs -- introduced in India in 1982 for a bypoll in Kerala – were among several measures taken by the poll panel over the years to clean up India’s democratic process which were once blighted by controversies over rigging, booth capturing and voter intimidation.
“The EC will leave no stone unturned in preserving the purity, integrity and credibility of the elections and reinforcing the faith and trust of the people in electoral democracy ,” chief election commissionerNa sim Z aid it old reporter son Saturday. He said the challenge is open only to recognised national and regional parties, who can nominate up to three representatives of Indian nationality.