By Siddhant Mohan, TwoCircles.net
Last week, the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced a hackathon for the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). However, it seems that parties like the Aam Aadmi Party, Congress and Bahujan Samaj Party, who had been most vocal against the use of EVMs, have decided to not participate in the challenge.
The step by the aforementioned parties becomes even more surprising given that parties like CPM, RJD and NCP have agreed to participate in the challenge even though they have hardly ever raised doubts over the credibility of EVMs. However, the ECI rejected the RJD’s application as it reached after the deadline of 5 PM on Friday.
Trinamool Congress asked the ECI for more time to let the party decide representatives for EVM hacking and demonstration, but the ECI turned down the request and asked TMC to send the names and application, if any, by the set time and date.
Reportedly, the Aam Aadmi Party requested the ECI to let them change the EVM’s motherboard, possibly to prove their point, which ECI turned down citing the demand as irrational. The AAP has written a letter to the ECI and has asked that why the ECI is running away from no-holds-barred hackathon.
Talking to the media, AAP leader Gopal Rai said, “Conditions put by ECI do not resolve the issue. The commission has denied our request to touch the machines.”
In the letter to the ECI, AAP’s national secretary Pankaj Gupta wrote, “….only a ‘visual inspection’ of the inner machinery of the EVM would be permitted and no use of tools would be allowed. Do you think a machine can be hacked by looking at it? It almost seems as if you’re trying to hide the inadequacies of the EVMs by not letting anyone touch the EVM.”
Moreover, the AICC also requested ECI to relax some rules in hackathon, but it was also not entertained by the ECI. The AICC’s communication in-charge Randeep Surjewala wrote in a letter to Chief Election Commissioner that it (ECI) should allow access to components of EVMs other than Ballot Unit (BU) and Control Unit (CU). Currently, ECI’s norms allow access to challengers only to Ballot Unit and Control Unit, but political parties including Congress and AAP have been demanding access to other components like motherboards and etc.
The reason cited by AAP and Congress, who came as biggest accusers of EVM tampering, for not taking part in EVM hacking challenge relates to the rules and regulation imposed by ECI, which may prevent challengers to carry out a detailed test and analysis of the EVMs.
Apart from CPM and NCP, three parties – CPI, RLD and BJP – have decided to watch the hackathon. The aforesaid EVM hackathon challenge will be held on June 3, and is likely to wind up within hours as number of participating parties is just two.
Notably, Congress and AAP have been the forerunners of the whole EVM debate. After the defeat in UP Polls and Delhi civic polls, Congress and AAP accused EVM tampering for their losses, respectively. Their reasons for not taking part in the hackathon also sounds obvious, as the whole EVM debate depends upon tampering, which could only be possible by manipulating the machinery with tools, for which ECI has not agreed.