The Election Commission (EC) on Thursday rejected the allegations of tampering of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) made by some political parties after the just-concluded Assembly elections. Terming their allegations as “wild and baseless,” the Commission said there is no merit in the claims that EVMs can be tampered with.
In a strongly-worded statement, the Commission said “baseless, speculative and wild allegations are being made which deserve to be rejected.” The EC further made it clear that the Commission needs
Rs 3,174 crore for having requisite number of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) so that they could be used in all EVMs in lok Sabha polls in 2019.
Given effective technical and administrative safeguards, EVMs are not tamperable and integrity of electoral process is preserved, the EC said. Some activists had showed on TV a machine which they claimed can be manipulated. The Commission had countered the allegation stating that the machine was stolen from EVM warehouse in Mumbai and modified by the activists. “Thus it was no longer the machine used by the EC,” it said.
The EC also said it did not receive specific complaints or concrete material from political parties and candidates about alleged tampering of EVMs during recently held election. The Commission said that so far, no one has been able to actually demonstrate that EVMs used by the Election Commission can be tampered with or manipulated.
It said, “What has been demonstrated or claimed to have been demonstrated is on a privately assembled look-alike of ECI-EVMs and not the actual ECI-EVMs. Electronics Corporation of India ltd and Bharat Electronics ltd are the two PSUs which manufacture the EVMs for EC.”
The poll watchdog assured that its EVMs are tamper-proof and it is “fully satisfied with the integrity of electoral process using EVM”. Since 2000, EVMs have been used in 107 Assembly polls and three lok Sabha elections held in 2004, 2009 and 2014. It recalled that the “controversy” over the reliability of the machines was raised by political parties after the 2009 lok Sabha polls. “However, no specific allegation was raised nor could they prove before any court,” the statement said.
The EC said the BSP’s representation on EVM tampering was without any specific allegation and it had rejected the claim of the party. “Such concerns about alleged tamperability of ECI-EVM have been raised earlier also since their introduction including before High Court and the SC.
The EC’s rebuttal came a day after BSP supremo Mayawati said she will move court against the alleged tampering of EVMs. AAP leader and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal too had alleged that EVMs may have been tampered in Punjab.