Claiming that Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) can be tampered with “in several ways”, two activists on Wednesday challenged the Election Commission to prove the reliability of the machines before global experts.
21 questions put forth
Tehseen Poonawalla, who calls himself a Congress supporter, and Election Watch convenor V.V. Rao have sought answers to 21 questions from the poll panel. They flagged the concern a day after an AAP MLA made a “live demonstration” in the Assembly on how EVMs could be rigged.
‘Why is EC reluctant?’
“EVMs can be tampered with in several ways. Why doesn’t the EC open up this challenge for international hackers, media and election commissioners of foreign democracies to witness?” Mr. Poonawalla said.
“If EVMs cannot be tampered with, it is great. But if they can be (tampered with), it will be out in front of the world,” he added.
Mr. Rao, meanwhile, wondered why the EC was “reluctant” to invite those who had filed petitions in the Supreme Court challenging the reliability of EVMs and experts to the all-party meeting the poll watchdog had convened on May 12. He also sought to know why the EC was posing a challenge to the theory of “EVM hacking” when it had “already been exposed” in 2010 that the machines could be tampered with, which led to the use of VVPATs. He also asked why the EC was not using VVPATs in every election despite a 2013 Supreme Court direction to that effect.
