No Credible Proof On EVM Tampering, Says Election Commission: Highlights

New Delhi: The Election Commission (EC) set the date for the challenge to show that voting machines or EVMs can be tampered with. The challenge begins from June 3. Last Friday, the top election body had held an all-party meet to discuss the upcoming 'EVM hackathon' after allegations that the voting machines were hacked in the recently-held assembly elections and the Delhi civic elections. Today, before a press conference, the Election Commission displayed the working of both an electronic voting machine or EVM and Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail or VVPAT.

Here are the highlights of the press conference by Chief Election Commissioner Dr. Nasim Zaidi:

• The Commission has conducted elections successfully for 107 state assemblies
• Some people have doubts about about the EVMs. We have even got suggestions. But the EC has not received any credible information about these.
• We held an 8-hour meeting with political parties. 
• The Commission has stated before parties that all future elections will be mandatory held with VVPATs.
• The Commission believes that the use of VVPATs will bring utmost transparency and credibility in the voting system
• The audit trail will make the voters feel confident. Once done, India will be the first country in the world to have elections with 100% VVPAT.
• The EC will hold a challenge and also prove that EVMs cannot be tampered with.
• People who questioned reliability of EVMs have not yet submitted any proof or credible material to support their claim.
• EC told political parties that their suggestions have been heard and that building confidence is a shared responsibility.
• Once the voter keys in their vote, the ballot unit sends the vote to the control unit in an encrypted format.
• People allege that EVMs can be manipulated by infecting the chip with a Trojan horse. We would like to confirm that this is not possible. We do not have any wireless process.
• Physical manipulation is also totally ruled out as there are multiple layers of security as well as several layers of self-check features.
• 16 lakh VVPAT machines have been sanctioned and money has been received by the EC for this. The amount we have got is over Rs 3,000 crores.