Botswana’ Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) which is interested in buying EVMs from India, and their manufacturer Bharat Electronics ltd (BEl) on Sunday denied that an attempt was made in the southern African nation to check if the electronic voting machines could be hacked. The clarification came following reports that a hackathon was organised in Botswana.
“There was no attempt made to open or temper of any unit of its machine during ther stay in Botswana,” a BEl statement said on Sunday.
According to BEl statement, its team went for a demonstration on the invitation of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) of Botswana and was there from May 16 to 21.
It said that in Botswana, the team discussed with IEC about the news of this hackathon and told them it was deputed only for demonstration of EVMs and VVPAT (voter verified paper audit trail) machines.
“IEC confirmed that BEl team has been requested to make in-depth presentations and demonstrations of EVMs and VVPATs and categorically denied having arranged for a hackathon concerning the Indian EVMs,” the statement said.
The IEC also denied that any hackathon was organised.
“We categorically deny having arranged for a hackathon on the Indian EVM,” it said in a letter.
last month BEl had issued a statement saying that it has only been invited to demonstrate the functions of the machines.
There were media reports that the election commission of Botswana invited experts to hack into the India-made EVMs after the recent controversy over the reliability of the devices in India. It has also clarified that it neither sold EVMs to the African nation nor will be part of any challenge to tamper these machines.
Earlier several political parties in India had alleged that the EVMs were manipulated in the recently concluded assembly elections in five States to benefit the BJP, a charge Election Commission of India vehemently denied.
The EC’s EVM challenge on Saturday proved to be damp squib and turned out to be an anti-climax, as the only two parties that finally registered and participated in the event were content with a “demonstration” of the machine by the EC.