AAP stages demo on tampering EVMs, just a lookalike gadget: EC

The Delhi Assembly on Tuesday became a venue for the AAP government to stage a live demonstration of manipulation of electronic voting machine (EVM), a theme the party has been singing following its recent poll drubbings.

The BJP for its part said it was an attempt to divert attention from bribery charges against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

After MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj demonstrated the ways to rig the EVM, the Assembly passed a resolution urging President Pranab Mukherjee and the Election Commission to ensure that future elections be held with paper trail equipped EVMs. The resolution was passed by a voice vote in the Assembly where 65 out of the 70 MLAs belong to the AAP.

There are four BJP MLAs and one seat is vacant after an AAP MLA resigned and joined the opposition, while Kapil Mishra, an AAP MLA is suspended from the party following his allegations against Kejriwal and others.

The AAP had also invited leaders of Trinamool Congress, JD(U), Samajwadi Party and CPM to witness the EVM hacking.

Speaking at the special session called to discuss the EVM issue, Bharadwaj, who is a computer science engineer, displayed a prototype of the  EVM made by an IIT engineer and demonstrated rigging a poll.

“There are secret codes that can be used to decide on the day of voting which candidate can win. Only the motherboard needs to be changed and that can be done in 90 seconds,” he said. After entering a secret code, Bhardwaj pressed 10 votes for the AAP but the display board showed that the votes went to the BJP.

“I challenge the BJP. Give us the EVMs which will be used in Gujarat polls for three hours, you won’t win a single booth,” the AAP legislator said.

While Kejriwal did not speak during the session, his deputy Manish Sisodia said for the sake of freedom fighters and people, one must question the EVMs and the state of democracy in the country.
Mishra, the suspended MLA, said the party should stop living in denial and accept the fact that people do not vote for Kejriwal anymore.

The session started on a high-decibel note with the Opposition BJP MLAs led by Leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta wanting to discuss corruption allegations against the AAP leaders.  However, Gupta was suspended for the day within 30 minutes into proceedings after he repeatedly tried to disrupt the functioning of the EVM, sources said.

Just a lookalike gadget: EC on demo

The Election Commission (EC) on Tuesday dismissed the Aam Aadmi Party’s bid to cast aspersions on credibility of the electronic voting machine (EVM) through a demonstration in the Delhi Assembly, reports DHNS from New Delhi.

The EC noted that the AAP used a EVM lookalike, but not an EVM, to stage the demonstration and to buttress its claim that the machines could be manipulated in favour of any particular political party.

“It is common-sense that gadgets other than EC-EVMs can be programmed to perform in a pre-determined way, but it simply cannot be implied that the EC-EVMs will behave in the same manner because they are technically secured and function under an elaborate administrative and security protocol,” the poll-panel said in a statement.

“Such so-called demonstration on extraneous and duplicate gadgets which are not owned by the EC, cannot be exploited to influence our intelligent citizens and electorate to assail or vilify the EVMs used by the commission in its electoral process,” it added.