NEW DELHI: Amid voices of concern over functioning of EVMs from many political parties, the poll panel has again said that given technical and administrative safeguards there is no merit in claims that EVMs can be tampered with and such allegations are wild and baseless.
The poll panel has said that since 2000, EVMs have been used in 107 General Elections to State Legislative Assemblies and 3 General Elections to Lok Sabha held in 2004, 2009 & 2014. In 2009, in a case before Delhi High Court, all earlier allegations about EVM temperabilities were raised. “However, Delhi High Court satisfied with detailed reply of ECI why EVM cannot be rigged.
“The Commission has put in place an elaborate technical and administrative system of safeguards to ensure error-free functioning of EVMs in elections. The Commission is thus fully satisfied with the tamper proof functioning of the ECI-EVMs,” said the Election Commission.
Officials said that such allegations and suspicions have not been raised for the first time. “Even on earlier occasions, the Commission has offered opportunities more than once to those alleging the tamperability of EVM, no one has been able to demonstrate to the Commission that the EVM with ECI and used in the country's election process, can be manipulated or tampered with,” said an official.
The EC has said that it did not find any merit in such allegations and reject all such allegations and suspicions raised by some political parties. “ECI assures all citizens that EVM of ECI are temper proof and fully satisfied with the integrity of electoral process using EVM. ECI will further enhance confidence of citizens in ECI's electoral process by deploying VVPAT in phase manner,” it said.
Further, ECI did not receive specific complaints or concrete material from political parties or candidates about alleged tempering of EVMs during recently held election process. At this stage, baseless, speculative and wild allegations are being made which deserves to be rejected. However, if any specific allegation with material facts is presented to ECI, the same will be looked into with all seriousness on administrative sides, it said.
“EC always had a firm conviction and complete satisfaction that EVMs could not be tampered with. Its faith on the machine has never wavered through the conduct of elections in the last many years including the nationwide general elections in 2004, 2009 and 2014. To date, no one has been able to actually demonstrate that EVMs used by the Election Commission can be tampered with or manipulated,” said the Election Commission.