Hack EVM, poll panel dares political parties
OPEN CHALLENGE EC announces Hackathon dates, but there are conditions attached with it
The Election Commission on Saturday announced that it will hold an open challenge from June 3 for political parties to prove their allegations that the electronic voting machines (EVMs) can be tampered.
The challenge will be open only to recognised national and regional parties which can nominate up to three representatives, provided they are all of Indian nationality.
Announcing the conditions of the challenge, Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi said all political parties which want to participate in the exercise will have to confirm their participation to the poll panel by 5 pm on May 26. The duration of the challenge is likely to be spread over 4 to 5 days, but will be finalised depending on the response of the political parties, he said.
The EC’s decision comes in the wake of allegations by political parties such as the BSP, the AAP and the Trinamool Congress that the EVMs used in the Assembly elections in five states, including Uttar Pradesh, in February-March were rigged. These parties have alleged that the EVMs were tampered to benefit the ruling BJP and have demanded reverting to paper ballots.
Earlier this month, the AAP in a demonstration inside the Delhi Assembly, claimed that it had proved how an EVM could be hacked to favour a particular party. The Election Commission had dismissed the “so-called demonstration of tampering of look-alike EVM” and also announced that it would soon stage a hacking challenge.
Addressing a media briefing, Zaidi while rubbishing the claims of EVM tampering said no credible information was received to strengthen the complaints of tampering. “Complaints came after elections in the five states, but we did not receive any credible material information on EVM tampering from the complainants. We believe in complete transparency and have no reason to hide anything,” he said, adding, “We did a thorough investigation after we received complaints following the elections held in Bhind. It has been made clear through the demo that no tampering was done. These are baseless rumours.”
Asserting the implausibility of tweaking the process through external hardware, Zaidi said EVMs, being standalone machines, have no frequency receivers or data decoders to support technology involved with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or any such services.