EC CHALLENGE ON EVMs TODAY

Uttarakhand HC has rejected a plea to stay the Election Commission’s EVM challenge, scheduled for Saturday. The court, however, wants fresh machines used.

NEW DELHI : The Election Commission will use as many as 14 randomly selected electronic voting machines (EVMs) deployed during the general and state elections in Punjab, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh during the hacking challenge on Saturday to counter allegations by various opposition parties that the devices can be tampered with.

Of the seven national and 65 recognised regional parties only two have chosen to participate in the “hackathon” that will be held between 10am and 2pm at the EC headquarters in the Capital. The EVMs will be open for scrutiny by the teams representing the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) that accepted the poll panel’s challenge.

Other parties such as the Bharatiya Janata Party, Rashtriya Lok Dal, and Communist Party of India have “expressed their intent to observe”, an EC official said. Lalu Prasad Yadavled Rashtriya Janata Dal’s application was rejected as it was received after the deadline.

After the BJP’s landslide victory in the UP assembly polls AAP, BSP, TMC and the Congress had alleged that the electronic voting machines (EVMs) were tampered with to benefit the ruling party.

The AAP even held a ‘demonstration’ of an EVM being hacked inside the Delhi assembly earlier this month using a replica.

These parties that had raised doubts about the efficacy of the the electronic voting machines (EVMs) will not take part in the challenge, alleging that the EC had put in place stringent conditions that would make it impossible for them to prove the frailties of the system.

The election watchdog, on its part, stuck to its position to not bend the rules and not allow the internal circuitry of the machines to the changed.

It has also refused to allow the parties to take the EVMs outside the premises during the challenge.

On Thursday night, the poll panel sent a list to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) giving details about the EVMs complete with their control and ballot unit numbers.

The NCP had asked the EC about the specifics of the machines that were being used in the challenge.

These EVMs were brought to the Capital in sealed box boxes and the whole process was recorded on camera.

AAP, BSP, TMC AND THE CONGRESS WHO HAD ALLEGED THAT THE EVMS WERE TAMPERED WITH TO BENEFIT THE RULING PARTY DURING ASSEMBLY POLLS ARE NOT TAKING PART IN THE HACKATHON