EC warns action against unhealthy criticism

The Election Commission of India on Saturday warned of action against anyone indulging in unhealthy criticism of the EVM challenge.

Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi cited the order of the Uttarakhand High Court on the constitutionality of the challenge and said if anybody violated the order, it may consider the matter and take a decision.

While dismissing a petition challenging the constitutionality of the hackathon held on Saturday, the court said there is no scope to doubt the fair working of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM).

Separately, terming the EC’s challenge a “farce”, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday opened registration for its parallel challenge and invited people to hack the voting machines under the poll panel’s guidelines.

AAP legislator Saurabh Bhardwaj said the participants can get themselves registered on a link given on the party website.

It said the registration process will remain open for a week and then a hackathon will be organised. Any hacker can participate in this challenge and hack our machine under the conditions set up by the EC.

Each participant will be given a four-­hour slot to tamper with our machine,” Bhardwaj said.

The AAP had decided not to take part in the commission’s challenge after its request for a change in the terms and conditions was shot down by the panel.