Poll panel vouches for EVM credibility

The Election Commission's Technical Expert Committee (TEC) on Tuesday said that the EVMs used by the poll panel could never have a wireless link with any device on any radio frequency.

“The ECI-EVMs are stand-alone machines designed to connect only amongst ECI-EVM units (Ballot Unit, Control Unit and VVPAT) through cables that remain in full public view. There is no mechanism in ECI-EVMs to communicate with any device through wireless communication on any Radio Frequency,” the TEC said.

The TEC members— Emeritus Professor of Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, D T Shahani, Director of Indian Institute of Technology Bhilai, Rajat Moona, and Emeritus Professor of Indian Institute of Technology (Bombay) D K Sharma – issued a statement on Tuesday, vouching for the credibility of the EVMs.

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The controversy over the credibility of the EVMs re-kindled on Monday as a man claiming to be a cyber expert based in United States claimed at an event in London that the 2014 parliamentary elections in India had been rigged.

Syed Shuja claimed that the BJP leader Gopinath Munde had been killed because he had been aware about the hacking of the EVMs for manipulating the outcome of the last Lok Sabha elections.

The PTI report from London quoted Shuja claiming on Monday that the telecom giant Reliance Jio had helped the BJP get low frequency signals to hack the EVMs.

He, however, provided no proof to back up his claim, PTI added.

Shuja also said that the BJP would have won Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections too, if his team had not intercepted the BJP's attempts to hack into EVMs in these states.

“All versions of ECI-EVMs are regularly and rigorously tested against low to high wireless frequencies. These tests include and go beyond the standard tests specified for electronic equipment,” the TEC said.

Shuja's concern about the two side printing of VVPAT paper which reportedly retains lower tampered print while the front side print as verified by the voter, getting erased, the TEC clarified that VVPATs use thermal printers which can print only on one side of the thermal paper.

The print is fully visible through the viewing window. The paper rolls used in VVPATs have only one-sided thermal coating and hence can be printed only on one side. The VVPAT paper print lasts at least for five years, the EC stated.

The EC reiterated that while the ECI-EVMs might malfunction sometimes like any other machine due to component failures and stop working.

But even such a malfunctioning ECI-EVM would not record any vote incorrectly.

“It is reaffirmed that ECI-EVMs are not tamperable,” the poll-panel said.