Setback to Oppn: 14-step checks by candidates make EVMs unhackable, says report

New Delhi, Nov 29 (IANS) At a time when the country’s EVM-based elections are being hailed across the globe, the Opposition’s bid to cast aspersions on the exercise after its defeat in the Maharashtra Assembly polls has been rubbished by analysis and research agency, Info In Data, in its latest report released on Friday.

Echoing the Election Commission’s earlier assertions about a fool-proof system against rigging, Info In Data gave a detailed report on the checks and balances in the electoral process that leave no scope for any form of bungling.

The report highlighted the involvement of parties and candidates at 14 stages in checking or signing seals of the EVMs during the electoral process.

All party representatives are present at testing, randomisation and other technical stages in Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT)-EVM units on six occasions, said the report.

“At various stages, the candidates or their representative sign five times on the seals that lock the EVMs,” said Info In Data.

Pointing toward the zero possibility for rigging, the report said that during the entire process VVPAT-EVM units, with signatures of EC functionaries, are shared three times with political parties, including the list of 100 per cent checked EVMs.

The report comes as a fresh setback to the Opposition, particularly the Congress which has been hiding behind the excuse of EVM tampering for its recent electoral debacles.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was left searching for words to describe the MVA’s drubbing. Just as he did in Haryana, he described the loss in Maharashtra as “unexpected”.

Taking to social media platform X, Gandhi wrote in Hindi, “Maharashtra results are unexpected and we would conduct a detailed analysis.”

The Maharashtra Congress even announced that it will launch a signature campaign, demanding that future elections should be conducted on ballot paper instead of EVMs to save democracy.

Maharashtra Congress President Nana F. Patole said that nobody believed the results of the recent Maharashtra Assembly polls and “there is a feeling in all quarters that something has seriously gone wrong”.

Three days after the Congress’ drubbing in Maharashtra, the Supreme Court also hit out at the double-standards adopted by politicians on EVMs, depending upon the implication of the outcome for them.

“If you win the elections, EVMs or voting machines are not tampered,” said the top court junking a petition seeking to go back to ballot paper voting in elections.

The report by Info In Data also comes as a reminder to the Congress to not go back in time and demand return of ballot paper voting – something that has been assailed even in the US.

For instance, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk hailed the EVM-based Indian electoral system for quick counting capability. In a recent post on X, he praised the Indian system’s ability to count 640 million votes in a single day. His post came in the backdrop of the slow and time-consuming counting process in the US, particularly California.

Musk’s reaction was welcomed by BJP leader and former Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar who wrote on X, “Unhackable EVMs, Voter IDs, Biometric Digital IDs – essentials of a large, modern democracy that India is.”

–IANS

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