The Election Commission on Friday said it will offer political parties an opportunity to prove that electronic voting machines (EVMs) used in the recent Assembly polls were tampered with but it did not spell out any specific date.
As most of the parties asked the election watchdog to ensure removal of doubts about EVMs, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) demanded polls through ballot papers. Emerging from the nearly eight-hour long meeting, attended by 50 national and regional parties, including seven national and 48 State recognised political parties, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Nasim Zaidi said all future elections will be held through Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines.
Also, the CEC assured political parties that their concerns and apprehensions regarding EVMs would be considered and addressed. The ECI rubbished charges that the EVMs can be hacked by saying these are standalone machines, not connected to one another through Wi-Fi or other means, thus making any intervention from outside impossible.
Also, the CEC has insisted that not just the technology, but the physical security around the machines makes them tamper-proof.
“The political parties were also informed that the Commission will hold a challenge and offer an opportunity to political parties to demonstrate that the EVMs used in the recently-concluded Assembly elections were tampered or the EVMs can be tampered with even under the laid down technical and administrative safeguards,” Zaidi said.
However, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal claimed that the EC has “backed out of the proposed hackathon” to ascertain the reliability of EVMs and said it is a “sad” move. “Sad that EC has backed out of hackathon,” Kejriwal tweeted.
The Commission is under attack from some political parties, especially AAP and BSP, over use of EVMs. However, the CEC has sought to effectively counter all the charges.
Zaidi also made it clear that the Commission has “no favourites” and it was equidistant from all parties. “You should be convinced that ECI has no favourites...we maintain equidistance from all parties and groups. It is our constitutional and moral duty to stand dead centre of the circle drawn around us by 56 political parties (seven national and 49 state recognised parties),” he said.
His remarks come against the backdrop of Kejriwal reportedly questioning the independence of two Election Commissioners A K Joti and O P Rawat.
The CEC said representatives of political parties have presented their detailed views and suggestions at the meeting. A detailed presentation on EVM was made by Sudeep Jain, Director General of ECI, explaining its secured design feature, development process, stakeholders’ participation at various levels, and administrative processes.
The Commission also referred the queries raised by some political parties about the incidents of alleged EVM manipulation at Bhind and Dholpur during the recently concluded byelections, and reiterated that baseless perceptions were generated about these incidents.
At the day-long meeting, which started with the opening remarks of Zaidi, the Commission was expected to seek views of political parties on the proposed challenge it plans to throw to hack its EVMs.
The meeting saw a debate over the definition of ‘hacking’ or hackathon. Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who represented AAP in the meeting, tweeted that the EC “refused to carry out a hackathon”. Sisodia, later told the media that he has challenged EC officials that EVM can be tampered.
On the sidelines of the meeting, AAP MlA Saurabh Bhardwaj said the EC shared nothing new so far towards alleviating the fears of the parties.
“They won’t let us access their machines and then challenge us to prove our charge of hacking. The ECI is being very smart,” Bhardwaj claimed.
leaders of other parties, like the CPI, RJD and RlD raised other aspects of the electoral process like corporate funding. CPI (M) leader Nilotpal Basu said his party has suggested that ECI should not looked back or return to ballot papers.
“The ECI should clear doubts on EVMs and all future elections should be on VVPAT machines,” Basu said while CPI national secretary Atul Anjan questioned that the whole issue is about the ethos and integrity of the election process. “Why are advanced countries in the West not using EVMsIJ” he questioned.
There were, however, some parties whose representatives said their faith in the machines has eroded and the EC should revert to the old ballot paper system. While BJP, CPI, CPI (M), AIADMK, DMK, NCP and JD(U) clearly supported use of EVMs, provided paper trail machines are attached to it, BSP, AAP, TMC said the paper ballot system was better and more transparent.
Assembly elections are due in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh later this year. Assembly polls are also due in some States, including Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Meghalaya and Rajasthan, next year.