While brushing aside the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) tampering allegation, the Election Commission of India (ECI) today demonstrated the working of the EVMs and the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail System (VVPATs).

A technical officer of Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL), asserted that the EVM tampering is a wrong allegation and demonstrated how the EVM and the VVPAT work.

Mishra told a leading news channel “The tampering of EVM is not possible and the allegations of its malfunctioning are wrong.” Another employee of ECIL also demonstrated the procedure of EVM and VVPAT.

Yadav said “These machines have a standalone printer. When any ballot button is pressed, a slip is generated carrying voter’s and candidate’s name.”

Chief of Election Commission, Naseem Zaidi said to bring in transparency, all the future elections will be held with VVPAT along with EVMs across polling stations. Meanwhile, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which had alleged tampering with the EVMs during UP and Delhi civil polls, hit out at the EC for not holding hackathon challenge as it promised earlier.

AAP leader and Delhi Minister Gopal Rai said “We hope the Election Commission tells us today when they will accept our (hackathon) challenge.” On Friday, the BJP said that the live demo of EVMs and VVPATs by the ECI will ensure credibility and the authenticity of the voting machine will be retained.

BJP leader S Prakash told “It is the duty of the Election Commission to convince every citizen and every political party about the credibility of the EVM. It is between the EC and the parties who are crying foul needlessly. I am sure that the EC will ensure credibility and the authenticity of the EVMs will be retained.”

Certain parties were creating huge ruckus against the hacking of the EVM to cover up their own lapses in winning over the mandate of the people and the demo of the EC will remove their doubt, said Prakash.

The poll panel, earlier in the week had said that it would provide an “opportunity” to the political parties to prove that the EVMs used in the recently held assembly polls were tampered with or can be tampered even with laid down safeguards. It also convened an all-party meeting over the issue of EVM and other electoral reforms. Moreover, the poll panel, in its communication to the presidents of all the seven national and 48 state political parties, sent a status paper on EVMs and VVPAT.

Last month, around sixteen opposition parties had urged the EC to revert to the paper ballot system saying that the alleged tampering has created trust deficit in the credibility of the EVMs. The poll body however, has been maintaining that EVMs are tamper proof and cannot be manipulated.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), recently during a special session of the Delhi assembly, had conducted a live demonstration on how EVMs can be tampered with. The poll panel, reacting to the demo said the machine used to conduct the live demo was a “look-alike”, which was made to function in a “tampered” manner.

SUPRAJA