The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) claimed that the proposal of holding a “hackathon” was “rejected” by the Election Commission (EC) which tabled an all-party meet to discuss the issue of credibility of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) on Friday. “Sad that the EC has backed out of the hackathon,” Kejriwal tweeted.
The AAP made three proposals to the EC in the meeting where several other political parties participated. However, Deputy Chief Minsiter Manish Sisodia made the proposal of holding an “ethical hackathon” while accepting the challenge of the EC to prove tampering of EVMs on condition of providing the machines used in the recently-held elections across five States.
“We have all heard of hackathon, it’s not a crime. We want ethical hackathon. You (EC) said instead of hackathon you will challenge. We are accepting the challenge but give us EVMs from your recently-held polls in five States,” Sisodia said in his speech in the all-party meet.
Sisodia said that the EC could invite techies from IIT, IIITD, BTU and other institutions to hack the EVMs and unfold the issue in a systematic manner.
“The polling booths from where complaints of default in votes were reported should be taken in possession by the commission and then multi- party team with a Magistrate including, those people who gave affidavits must be called. Record their statement and then get the timeline from your machines to verify to get the timeline who had voted at what time and its alignment. This is one suggestion to do system wise,” he added.
He also said that since you are going with voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) post Supreme Court orders, “My concern is there is no counting mechanism of printing of slips.” “Please ensure that in every constituency, 25 per cent polling booths should compulsorily count the VVPAT slips. Then it could be effective.”
I think you should hold a separate discussion with the people from your software team and call people from IITs to present clarity on what tamper-proof EVMs.
Sisodia talked about the vulnerability during the polling is different constituencies.
“Since 1952, the questions were raised that how can voting be held in such a big, populous, different topographically dense nation, I am proud that continuously, the EC has not only made it successfully but possible.
“Many coutries lost democracy because they could not hold voting successfully…now questions are being raised about votes not being registered..these questions not on any individual or paty but some processes.”
AAP MlA Saurabh Bhardwaj told reporters on the sidelines of the closed-door meeting that the EC shared nothing new so far towards alleviating the fears of the parties. The meeting saw a debate over the definition of “hacking”.
“They won’t let us access their machines and then challenge us to prove our charge of hacking. The EC is being very smart,” Bhardwaj said.
leaders from political parties including the CPI, the RJD and the RlD raised related as well as other aspects of the electoral process like corporate funding.
At the day-long meeting, Chief Election Commission Nasim Zaidi, said the Commission was expected to seek views of political parties on the proposed challenge it plans to throw to hack its EVMs.
The date of the proposed challenge would be decided after the all-party meeting, it was said.
On May 09, the AAP had staged a live demonstration on hacking an EVM prototype in the Delhi Assembly. The party had used the flood of the Delhi Assembly to make the demonstration to avoid any legal hassle.
The EC had refused the AAP’s claim, saying the ‘machine is a look-alike and not the ECI-EVM’.
Several parties, including the AAP, the BSP and the Congress had blamed tampered machines for the victory of the BJP in the recently-held Assembly polls.