There was a lot of hue and cry over the matter of EVM tampering after the results of five state elections were declared and surprisingly, it has been going on till now.
However, it seems that the Election Commission has had enough of it and it has decided to throw an open challenge for those parties who are alleging that EVMs were or could be tampered with. June 3 is the date of hackathon, as declared by the EC, and we can say that it will be the last chance for the complainers to prove that EVMs which were used in the February-March state elections were or could have been tampered with.
CEC Nasim Zaidi spoke at the press conference,
“EVMs are not hackable as these are stand alone machines and not connected to internet and/or any other network.”
However, some rules and regulations need to be followed if a political party wants to be a part of this hackathon. Below is the list:
1) The EC will allow those political parties (national/regional) to take part in the hackathon, which have contested in the five state elections which took place in Feb-Mar 2017.
2) The challenge of a political party will be cancelled if it fails to reach on time, provided that it has informed earlier and got the approval for it.
3) Those EVMs which are sealed or involved in the election petition won’t be allowed in the challenge; however, each party will get a chance to select minimum 4 EVMs of their choice from any of the 4 polling stations out of five states where elections took place.
4) A political party can send their 3 members to take part in the hackathon.
5) The cost of picking up the EVMs from the EC’s warehouse at Delhi has to be borne by political parties.
6) Political parties should inform the EC in written by 26th May, 5 pm, that they will take part in hackathon along with the details of their members who will represent them in the challenge.
7) The challenge will be rejected if:
(a) The result declared by the EC and the result came after EVM tampering are the same.
(b) EVM is left unsuitable for use or non-function after the challenger made an attempt to tamper with it.
(c) The rules are violated by the challenger.
We are excitedly looking forward to hackathon on June 3, are you?
