Election Commission’s Open Challenge: Try And Hack Our Voting Machines
The challenge will be held in the first week of May and could continue for 10 days, EC says
“Come, try hack our EVMs (electronic voting machines) and show they can be tampered with,” the Election Commission (EC) said on Wednesday, inviting political parties and experts to an "open challenge".
While the Commission is yet to decide on the exact date, it said the challenge will be held in the first week of May and could continue for 10 days.
The last time such an event had taken place was in 2009 when 100 machines from different parts of the country were kept at Vigyan Bhawan. No one, the EC claimed, could hack the electronic voting machines.
When Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal had met Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi with a complaint on EVMs last week, he was told that the poll panel is planning such an event.
This time, the venue could be Nirvachan Sadan, the EC headquarters.
The specifics would be decided by the Commission's technical expert committee on EVMs and the details would be made public in the next couple of days.
There is a strong possibility that the EVMs used in the Uttar Pradesh polls could also be brought in for the challenge. The Bahujan Samaj Party had alleged that tampered machines helped the Bharatiya Janata Party win the polls.
As per rules, the machines cannot be taken out of the strong room for 40 days – a period within which an aggrieved person can file an election petition before the concerned high court. That period will end later this month.