Johnson Cherian.
The Election Commission on Saturday conducted a live demonstration of the workings of the EVM and VVPAT machine ahead of announcing the schedule and process for its “EVM challenge”, in response to allegations by several political parties that the machines can be tampered with.
After the presentation, Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi said though some political parties raised doubts about EVM security, no concrete proof has been produced. “VVPAT machine to be used in all elections henceforth,” he said.
About a week ago, the EC held a meeting on the issue of electoral reforms, including EVM security. It gave a presentation on features of EVMs and use of VVPAT machines to assert that they could not be tampered with given the administrative measures adopted to secure them.
At the all-party meeting on May 12, 2017, Mr. Zaidi had said political parties had to demonstrate their claim that EVMs used in the recent Assembly polls could have been tampered with.
In 2009, the EC had held out a similar challenge when it demonstrated the functioning of EVMs brought in from various parts of the country to Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi.
At the all-party meeting, most parties said EVMs could be used for future elections if they came with a paper trail machine, which would enable the electorate to check if their vote had been registered against the person of their choice.
Some parties, however, said the EVMs could not be trusted and the EC should revert to the old ballot paper system, where people inked their choices on a sheet of paper.
