The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday threw an open challenge, commencing on June 3, to political parties to prove their allegations that the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) used during the recent elections in five States can be tampered. The challenge is expected to remain open for 4-5 days depending on the response of the political parties. There will be two types of challenges: One for general demonstration on claims of EVM’s “tamperability”, and the second for showing whether EVMs used during recent polls were tampered with.
After a live demonstration of EVMs at Vigyan Bhawan, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Nasim Zaidi said though some political parties had questioned the reliability of EVMs, they have not yet submitted any proof or credible material to support their claims. “The Commission received complaints from over 100 people. They have been told to furnish credible evidence, but none of them has provided the proof so far. Our EVMs have strong technological features and are tamper-proof,” he asserted.
Announcing the conditions of the challenge, Zaidi said, “Each party can nominate three persons for the challenge. The political parties have to confirm participation by 5 pm, May 26. The challenge will be open only to recognised national and regional parties. The challengers can press any key to tamper with the machine, use WiFi, Bluetooth or Internet device,” he said.
Parties like the AAP, the BSP and the TMC have alleged that the BJP’s resounding victories recently were because of tampering of EVMs. The AAP had recently even made a demonstration with an EVM prototype in Delhi Assembly to claim the machines can be tampered.
In challenge one, the claimants will have to alter the results in the Control Units (CU) used during these polls in exactly the same scenario as the EVMs remain within the technical and administrative safeguards of ECI after the poll during the storage in strong rooms or during counting, through using press of combination of keys on CU or Ballot Unit (BU) or both or by communication to CU or BU or Both via external wireless/Bluetooth/mobile phone.
In challenge two, the claimants will have to alter the results in the EVMs used during these polls in exactly the same scenario as the EVMs remain within the technical and administrative safeguards of ECI before the poll, i.e. during the storage in strong rooms or during the poll, through using press of combination of keys of CU or BU or both, or by communication to CU or BU or both via external wireless/Bluetooth/mobile phone etc.
Each political party will be allowed to choose a maximum of four EVMs of their choice from any four polling stations out of the five States where Assembly elections were held recently. The party challenging will be given a time of four hours during which their registered nominees will be given access to one of their chosen EVMs (CU+BU + VVPAT if deployed) to undertake the challenges.
In case, the first chosen EVM is in-operative as a result of transportation, then the second chosen EVM will be allowed to be used for the challenge and so on.
“The applicants/nominees will have to tamper with the machines kept in exactly the same scenario in which they are kept by ECI under technical and administrative safeguard, to prove that EVMs used in recent Assembly elections were tampered with,” Zaidi said.
“The nominees can ask for EVMs from any Assembly constituency, they will be allowed to travel along with the machines while being brought to the demonstration site to ensure that they are not touched by anyone else,” he said. Nominees must be Indians and the participants will be allowed to open the EVM only for inspection to confirm that components are that of the ECI’s.
The proceedings will be logged and videographed. “EVMs can be opened for visual inspection during the challenge to prove machines used in recent Assembly polls were tampered with,” he said adding that they could also be opened if EVMs stop working during such attempt or the challenger fails to demonstrate. However, changing of EVM components like the motherboard would not be allowed as the CEC said it was not possible under the current EC safeguards - technical and administrative.
Asserting that Indian EVMs are unique as compared to other countries as it is stand-alone non-networked machines, Zaidi said that EVMs are manufactured in two PSUs namely ECIl and BEl, unlike machines used in other countries, which were manufactured entirely by private entities and linked to internet. “In Brazil, the machines used in elections are called ‘electronic ballot boxes’ which are stand-alone direct electronic recording systems. In Venezuela, Smartmatic Auditable Election Systems (SATIS) voting machines are used which were fully implemented across the nation in 2004”.
“Every EVM has a unique number attached to it, which is recorded in the EC’s database through EVM Tracking Software. This number of the EVM can always be cross-checked against the database. The Commission has evolved full end to end security protocol and administrative safeguards for the use, storage, transportation and tracking of ECI EVMs, unlike in other countries where NEDAP machines were used. Unlike MOIKR of Netherlands, the Commission is fully backed by a Technical Expert Committee comprising eminent professors,” he said.
Zaidi said that EVMs cannot be physically tampered with nor their components be changed without anyone noticing and replacement of the internal circuit of EVMs is not possible at all.