EVMs non-tamperable, integrity of electoral process preserved: EC

KV Prasad

New Delhi, April 2

Rejecting the Aam Aadmi Party allegations of EVM tampering, the Election Commission on Sunday reiterated the integrity of polling through Electronic Voting Machines in the Punjab polls.

The High Court is the competent authority to order VVPAT tallying, the EC added.

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In a communication to the party today, ECI said mock poll on three occasions on EVMs are held in the presence of polling agents and others beforehand.

It asserted that EVMs cannot be tampered with and cannot be compared to similar units used in some countries that are linked to internet unlike standalone systems in India.

Most of the systems used in other countries are computer-based and controlled with internet connectivity. Hence, these could be vulnerable to ‘hacking’, it said.

The software in the ECI-EVM chip is one-time programmable and burnt into the chip at the time of manufacture.

“Nothing can be written on the chip after manufacturing. Thus, the ECI-EVMs are fundamentally different from the voting machines and processes adopted in various foreign countries,” the poll panel said.

It told AAP to introspect its defeat in Punjab and don't blame its performance on tampering of EVMs.

“It is for your party to introspect as to why your party could not perform as per your expectations and it is unfair on the part of your party to attribute unsatisfactory poll performance to the alleged tamperability of EVMs,” the ECI said.