Hours after the Aam Aadmi Party government demonstrated in the Delhi Assembly how an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) can be “tampered with”, the Election Commission on Tuesday dismissed the claim stating that it had no relevance as the machine was only a “look-alike”.
The Commission said such “so-called demonstration” on extraneous and duplicate gadgets which are not owned by it could not be exploited to influence intelligent citizens and electorate to assail or vilify the EVMs used by the Commission in its electoral process.
Terming it a “so-called demonstration”, the EC in a statement said: “In this context, it should be understood that it is possible for anyone to make any electronic gadget which ‘looks-like’ ECI-EVM and demonstrate any magic or tampering.”
The Commission said: “Very simply put, any ‘look-alike’ machine is just a different gadget, which is manifestly designed and made to function in a ‘tampered’ manner and has no relevance, incidence or bearing on the Commission’s EVMs”.
It is common sense that gadgets other than ECI-EVMs can be programmed to perform in a pre-determined way, but it simply can’t be implied that ECI-EVMs will behave in the same manner because the machines used by the Commission are “technically secured and function under an elaborate administrative and security protocol”, said the EC.
Stating that the Commission has scheduled an all-party meeting on May 12 on the issue of EVM security and electoral reforms, the EC said it had also released a status paper on its EVMs on its website.
