Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) last ditch effort to shift the blame for its defeat in recently-held Punjab polls on the electronic voting machines (EVMs) seems to have lost its intensity. Ruling out the tampering of machines, the poll watchdog on Sunday asked the party to indulge in introspection rather than blaming it.
Ever since its defeat in the Punjab assembly polls, AAP had been alleging the tampering of the EVMs. It had even demanded tallying of the VVPATs (the Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail) — that is matching the slips generated by VVPAT machines with the election result.
The communication by the Election Commission of India (ECI) has come as a setback for AAP, which is gearing up for Delhi civic body polls, followed by Himachal Pradesh assembly polls.
Unfazed, the party stuck to its stand and sought the validation of all EVMs used with VVPAT (Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail) system. And for the same, it has called for the Congress’ support to its demand for validation of all EVMs used with VVPAT in the assembly elections.
“The incident of default setting of an EVM linked with VVPAT to BJP symbol during trial for assembly by-poll of Bhind in Madhya Pradesh has vindicated AAP allegations that EVM were tampered with by ruling party…AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal had brought the matter in the notice of Chief Election Commissioner of India but no heed was paid to it,” said the leader of Opposition in Punjab Vidhan Sabha HS Phoolka.
Rejecting AAP’s allegations of tampering of EVMs, the ECI has reiterated the integrity of polling through EVMs in Punjab. It maintained that the High Court is competent authority to order VVPAT tallying.
“…After declaration of result only alternative available to verify the data of votes cast is to file an Election Petition before the competent court, that is the High Court concerned,” the communication, addressed to AAP’s national secretary Pankaj Kumar Gupta, stated.
Turning the tables on the debutant AAP, the ECI has asked the party to introspect its defeat in Punjab maintaining that it was not fair to blame its performance to tampering of EVMs.
“It is for your party to introspect as to why your party could not perform as per your expectations and it is unfair on the part of your party to attribute unsatisfactory poll performance of your party to the alleged tamperability of EVMs,” the poll panel stated, in a communication to the party.
“…given the effective technical and administrative safeguards, EVMs are not tamperable and integrity of electoral process is fully preserved,” it added.
The ECI claimed that the EVM “cannot be tampered with” and compared to similar units used in some countries that are linked to internet unlike stand-alone systems in India. Most of the systems used in other countries are computer-based and controlled with internet connectivity, hence, vulnerable to ‘hacking’.
“The software in the ECI-EVM chip is one-time programmable and burnt into the chip at the time of manufacture. Nothing can be written on the chip after manufacture. Thus, the ECI-EVMs are fundamentally different from the voting machines and processes adopted in various foreign countries,” it stated.
ECI also stated that the mock poll, on three occasions, on EVMs was held in the presence of polling agents and others beforehand.