EC denies AAP permission to tamper with EVM's motherboard during hackathon; calls demand irrational

The EC on Thursday rejected the demand of the Aam Aadmi Party to allow it to tamper with the motherboard of the electronic voting machines during the challenge.

Representational image - File photo

New Delhi: The Election Commission on Thurwsday rejected the demand of the Aam Aadmi Party to allow it to tamper with the motherboard of the electronic voting machines during the hackathon, saying that the EVMs would lose its originality if changes are made to its internal circuitry.

Yesterday, the AAP had asked the poll panel to reconsider the terms set for next week's EVM challenge and allow it to be an open 'hackathon' where tampering of any kind can be demonstrated.

An AAP delegation, which had visited the EC, had told the poll panel that it would be "worrying" if the event disallows tampering of the EVMs.

"We would like to strongly urge you to reconsider the terms of the EVM challenge. Please do not set any such rules and regulations and allow it to be an open hackathon where tampering of any kind can be demonstrated on the machine," AAP's national secretary Pankaj Gupta had said in a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi.

Reacting to AAP, poll watchdog also said today that the demonstration held inside the Delhi Assembly to prove that the machines can be hacked was carried out on a "look alike" EVM and not on the one used by the EC.

"Such so called demonstration on extraneous and duplicate gadgets, which are not owned by the EC cannot be misused and exploited to mislead and influence our intelligent citizens to assail or vilify the EVMS used by the Commission," it told AAP, as per PTI.

The EC further said that "allowing any change of the motherboard or any internal circuit of the EVM is like saying that anyone should be permitted to manufacture a new machine and introduce newly made EVMs in EC system, which is implausible and irrational".

The proposed challenge is on June three for which seven national and 48 regional parties recognised by the EC have been invited.

The challenge would be open only to national and state parties which contested Assembly polls in five states - Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Goa and Punjab.

They would not be allowed to change the motherboard of EVMs and take the machines home to prove at a later date that they can be tampered with.

The commission said with a changed chip, an EVM would no longer be the "ECI-EVM" but simply a look-alike.

The AAP, along with other parties, have pointed to tampering of EVMs as a major reason behind their defeat in recent state Assembly and civic body polls. 

The AAP also "demonstrated" in the Delhi Legislative Assembly how EVMs can be "tampered" with.

(With Agency inputs)