EC's 'open challenge': Try and hack our EVMs

NEW DELHI: With Congress Left , AAP and others claiming that electronic voting machines were manipulated to favour BJP, the Election Commission on Wednesday threw a challenge to political parties, scientists and technical experts to prove that EVMs could be tampered with.The open challenge, which will be on the lines of a similar exercise undertaken in 2009, follows doubts raised by several opposition parties which met the EC and have also petitioned the President. These also include BSP , SP and RJD. The allegations have been raised in the context of BJP’s landslide win in the UP assembly elections.EC sources told TOI that the latest challenge would see the poll panel deploying its EVMs at its headquarters for a week to 10 days and inviting all doubters to demonstrate their tamperability. The EC’s own technical expert group on EVMs will oversee the demonstration. The recent allegations have seen EC engage in a sharp exchange with AAP. Apart from asking political parties to try and establish their claims in the first week of May, the exercise is intended to reassure people that EVMs cannot be manipulated to distort the popular vote and are reliable and safe.Though media will not be allowed to cover the demonstrations live, each demonstration will be videographed and uploaded on the EC website at the end of the day to ensure full transparency. As in 2009, the EC will not allow those challenging the accuracy of EVMs to bring their own version of EVMs. The tamperability will have to be proven with the machines specifically provided by the EC for the ‘open challenge’.“In 2009, no technical expert or political party could demonstrate the tamperability of EVMs. However, we are holding a fresh challenge in the wake of latest allegations by parties, which have refused to clear up despite repeated assurances,” an EC functionary told TOI. “More than that, the purpose of our open challenge is to ensure that the confidence of the voter in EVMs is preserved,” the official added.During the 2009 challenge, the EC had offered 100 machines for a week between August 3 and 8 to demonstrate tamperability. Interestingly, none of the petitioners who had approached the SC or Mumbai HC, Madhya Pradesh (Jabalpur bench) HC or the Madras HC against EVMs turned up for the challenge.