A lookalike machine cannot be compared to our EVMs, says EC

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission on Tuesday rejected AAP's claim to have “demonstrated“ tampering of an EVM, saying the “lookalike“ machine produced in the assembly could not be compared to EVMs owned by the EC.

“It is possible for anyone to make any electronic gadget which looks like ECI-EVM and demonstrate any magic or tampering... any 'lookalike' 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,“ the EC said.

The commission said it was common sense that gadgets other than ECI-EVMs could be programmed to per form in a certain way , and said it could not be implied that ECI-EVMs would behave in the same manner “because ECI-EVMs are technically secured and function under an elaborate administrative and security protocol“.

The AAP demonstration will not affect the EC's all party meeting on May 12 on EVMs and electoral reforms. The so-called demonstration on extraneous and duplicate gadgets which are not owned by ECI cannot be exploited to influence our intelligent citizens and electorate to assail or vilify EVMs used by the commission in its electoral process,“ warned the poll body.

EC sources said the AAP's claim was similar to previous attempts to use unsecured and privately manufactured machines to allegedly demonstrate that EVMs were vulnerable to manipulation. The claims could not be substantiated during a formal opportunity offered by EC to prove the claims on its machines.

EC will brief parties on May 12 on the tamper-proof security features of EVMs and highlight their advantages vis-à-vis

ballot papers

. It will also seek the views of seven national parties and 48 recognised state parties on modalities of the upcoming EVM challenge.

Interestingly, senior EC functionaries have objected to description of the upcoming EVM challenge as a “hackathon“, arguing that it is not possible to hack EVMs in the first place as they are standalone machines with no internet connectivity.

“What we are envisaging is an opportunity to political parties to clear their doubts regarding the reliability and infallibility of EVMs; they will be offered ECI-EVMs to prove their tamperability (sic) over a week to 10 days. AAP will be among the parties that will be invited to participate in the challenge,“ said an EC functionary.

One of the key modalities of the EVM challenge will be that the challenger must demonstrate only with ECI-EVMs. “No party or technical expert will be allowed to bring a prototype EVM,“ said an EC official.

During the last opportunity offered to political parties in 2009 to demonstrate tampering of EVMs, former Delhi chief secretary Omesh Saigal had refused to demonstrate the points regarding vulnerability of EVMs earlier raised by him using any of the 100 ECI-EVMs he was offered to choose from. He offered to show the possibility of tampering using his personal computer and a lookalike of the ECI-EVM that was privately manufactured. EC disallowed this, insisting that ECI-EVM was not comparable to the prototype brought by him and to avoid creating confusion in the minds of the public.

In 2010, technical coordinator Hari K Prasad, who claimed he could successfully demonstrate that EVM could be tampered with, was arrested for the theft of an EVM from Mumbai. However, even he could not prove vulnerability of ECI EVMs.