Political parties who are sceptical about the credibility of the electronic voting machines?(EVMs) used by the Election Commission (EC) have been granted their chance to prove their claims.
BCCL
The EC on Saturday announced the EVM Challenge starting from 3 June, where political parties can try and hack the voting machines. To take part in the challenge the parties will have to register on or before May 26. Each national and state recognised party can nominate three authorised persons for the challenge.?
BCCL
Making the announcement, Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi said the ?challenge will restore and enhance faith and confidence of voters in EVM voting system.
BCCL
"It will be a failure on part of the challenger if the EVM turns non-operational upon tampering attempt; results match with control unit; challenger defies norms or withdraws," Zaidi explained the 'rules' of the challenge.
BCCL
Reiterating the faith on the EVMs used in India, the CEC said "Our machines are totally different than the ones used in countries like Ireland. Our machines are tamper proof".
He also added that the EVMs cannot be affected by Trojan horse and that the machines are standalone and not connected to internet, making manipulation impossible.?
BCCL
The CEC also said that all future elections will be held with Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines along with EVMs in all polling stations to bring in transparency.
BCCL
The EC's move comes after a number of political parties raised concerns over EVM tampering after the recent assembly elections to five states.
PTI
The Aam Aadmi Party, which has been leading the campaign, had even held a demo on how the EVMs can be manipulated.