Show how EVMs can be tampered or apologise to EC: BJP’s open challenge to ‘irresponsible parties’

Election Commission has thrown the open challenge to build credibility of the EVM which was doubted by many political parties

By: ANI News Agency |
May 21, 2017 8:20 am

As the Election Commission of India ( ECI) has put forth a challenge before the political party to tamper the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM), the Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP) on May 21 asserted that its time for the political parties to prove the claims made by them earlier by hacking the polling machine or should just apologise.

“Election Commission has thrown the open challenge to build credibility of the EVM which was doubted by many irresponsible parties. Those who accused and charged that EVMs are hacked due to which the BJP was able to win the election should not demonstrate how the EVMs can be hacked on June 3,” BJP leader S. Prakash told ANI.

He added if the parties failed to do so then they must apologise to the nation and to the constitution bodies for trying to defame it by making baseless allegations.

Another BJP leader Sudesh Verma resonating similar sentiments said that the decision taken by the Election Commission will bring greater transparency and trust on the system.

“Will wait for the political parties and leaders who claimed that they could hack the EVMs and if they can actually prove their claims then this is the time. As far as BJP is concerned we are very confident of the process adopted by the Election Commission of India which is a constitutional body,” Verma said.

He added that the saffron party has no reason to doubt the credibility of the poll panel.

Earlier Saturday, the poll panel asked the Opposition parties and experts to prove that the EMVs, used in the Assembly elections, can be tampered with.

However, the EC put forth terms and conditions for the parties attempting to tamper the machines.

The EC said that only those parties, national and regional, that took part in the recently concluded Assembly elections can hack the EVMs. It asked each party to appoint three people to hack the EVMs.

The poll panel said that the EVMs need to be picked from its warehouses in Delhi at parties’ own cost.

It said each political party will get to pick at least four EVMs of their choice from any four polling stations out of the five poll-gone states. The EVMs involved in the election petition or those sealed will not be allowed in the hackathon.

The poll panel said that if the EVM becomes non-functional after the tamper attempt or if the tamper result is same as the one put out by the EC or if the challenger violates the rules-set, the challenge will be struck down.