Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of India Sunil Arora on Wednesday said electronic voting machines (EVMs) are tamper-proof and can only malfunction but not be hacked.
Reacting to demands of political parties to bring back ballot papers, Mr. Arora said there is no question of going back to the old system, and the Election Commission of India (ECI) is committed to implementing the Supreme Court guidelines on counting by way of voter verified paper audit trail. He was speaking after a review meeting with election commissioners of three States — Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Haryana — who are set to go to polls this year. He discussed poll preparedness with the State administration, Maharashtra Police, income tax, excise, and other departments.
“A delegation of parties made a demand to restore the old system (ballot papers). But let me tell you, ballot papers is history and cannot be brought back. The EVM can malfunction like other machines but it cannot be tampered with,” he said.
Playing down the buzz surrounding the announcement of dates for polling in the three States, the CEC said the announcement will be made at an appropriate time in New Delhi. He said the commission will consider Diwali holidays before finalising the dates. The term for Haryana Assembly ends on November 2, while for Maharashtra, the term ends on November 9 and Jharkhand on December 7.
Mr. Arora also said Maharashtra’s Lok Sabha turnout of 61.61% was less than the national average of 67% and the ECI will conduct a drive to raise awareness among first-time voters in the State. “Before announcing the date, we will keep in mind the movement of security forces as well, who take anywhere between four and five days to travel from far-flung areas,” he said.
After the review meeting over two days, the ECI released a booklet debunking the theories around hacking of EVMs. The booklet said the word hacking itself is not applicable to EVM since it is a standalone machine. “The software in the OTP microcontroller can neither be read nor modified.” The ECI booklet said it has also ruled out ‘remotely altered CU display’ through wireless communication to replace the display module of an EVM.
Shiv Sena demand
Reacting to a demand by the Shiv Sena, the CEC said there is no question of increasing the limit for poll expenditure for candidates. The Sena leaders led by MP Anil Desai made a presentation before the ECI seeking an increase in the expenditure limit for each candidate to ₹70 lakh from the existing ₹28 lakh. The Commissioner said it is not under consideration as of now.
What Congress wants
The Congress meanwhile demanded scrutiny of electoral rolls and deletion of 44.61 lakh bogus names from the voter list. The CEC said they have probed the claims and so far 2.16 lakh bogus voters have been deleted and the process to delete the remaining names is on. “We have forwarded our reply and asked them to make further submission if they have doubts,” Mr. Arora said.
