Come and hack EVM machines, if you can: Election Commission's 'open challenge'

Electronics Corporation of India Ltd and Bharat Electronics Ltd are the two PSUs which manufacture the EVMs for EC. Photo: Representational

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission on Wednesday threw an "open challenge" to people to hack its EVMs, a move which comes after opposition parties urged it to revert to the paper ballot system raising doubts over infallibility of the machines. "From first week of May, experts, scientists, technocrats can come for a week or 10 days and try to hack the machines," an official source said. They said the challenge will be open for a week or 10 days and will have various levels. The Commission had announced a similar challenge in 2009 and it claimed no one could hack its electronic voting machines (EVMs). Arvind Kejriwal alleged EC is helping BJP win elections Launching an attack on the EC over alleged EVM manipulation, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had claimed that the poll body was acting like "Dhritarashtra" to help son "Duryodhana" (BJP) win the polls. He alleged that the Commission's only intention was to bring the BJP to power in poll-bound states and that is why it was not paying heed to his request to investigate defective EVMs. Kejriwal's accusation comes a day after media reports stated that a few machines, used during the bypoll in Rajasthan's Dholpur, may have been "tampered with". Accusing the Election Commission of "overlooking" complaints of alleged EVM manipulation, Kejriwal linked the Commission to Mahabharata's character Dhritarashtra. Opposition parties urged EC to revert to paper ballots Sixteen opposition parties on Monday urged the Election Commission to revert to the paper ballot system in future elections saying tampering allegations have created "trust deficit" on the reliability of the voting machines. The parties had slammed the Centre for failing to provide funds to the Commission to put in place sufficient number of voter verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. "We are not blaming the EC. EC feels EVMs are tamper-proof. Even Pentagon is not fool-proof. We have urged the Commission to revert to paper ballot system till the reliability of EVMs is proven beyond doubt by all stakeholders," senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal had said. The parties said that there is a consensus among the political parties on the mode of conduct of elections, "which for the present, is against the EVMs and in favour of reverting to the original practice of voting by paper ballot". They reminded the Commission that the issue of "widespread allegations" about the tampering of EVM machines in the recently-held assembly elections have been raised by almost all opposition parties in Parliament. The delegation told the three Commissioners that the recent allegations of tampering of EVMs in Ater of Bhind district in Madhya Pradesh "to suit BJP further lend credence to this apprehension of the opposition parties". They said similar allegations of EVM tampering have been reported in the Maharashtra local body elections -- BMC elections (Mumbai), Municipal Corporations of Pune, Nashik and Amravati.