EC says EVMs can't be tampered with, security measures discussed at all-party meet

The Election Commission assured all political parties on Friday that electronic voting machines (EVMs) were secure and could not be tampered with.

"The Chief Election Commissioner assured the reliability of the EVMs and asserted they were secured and cannot be tampered with," said JD(U) leader KC Tyagi, who left the all-party meeting midway for another engagement.

"After the CEC's address experts from IITs also sought to clarify doubts that many political parties have about the reliability of the EVMs. Let us see what is the outcome of this meeting," he added.

BJP legislator from Rajouri Garden Manjinder Singh Sirsa said: "The EC today informed in detail about the security features of the EVMs and asserted that they cannot be tampered with at all."

"So far there have been 37 cases in various courts regarding EVM tampering. The judgments in 30 of those cases have come and all 30 have been in favour of the EVMs being tamper-proof," the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said.

Representatives of seven



national parties and 48 state parties were invited by the poll panel for the meeting at the Constitution Club in order to reassure the Opposition that Electronic Voting Machines cannot be tampered with and were secured.

A host of opposition parties -- chiefly the Arvind Kejirwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) -- have alleged that EVMs were tampered with in the February-March five state assembly elections and the just concluded Delhi civic polls.

Opposition parties, including the Congress and the Trinamool Congress, had earlier petitioned the poll panel as well as President Pranab Mukherjee about the vulnerability of the EVMs.

AAP legislator Saurabh Bharadwaj, during a special session of the Delhi assembly, claimed to have demonstrated the procedure for tampering with an EVM.

The poll panel dismissed his assertion outright saying the machine used by Bharadwaj was a "lookalike" of an ECEVM and therefore could be used to demonstrate "any magic" or tampering.