NEW DELHI: Information accessed under Right to Information (RTI) Act is once again fuelling questions about security of electronic voting machines (EVMs), which are at the centre of a debate on tamper-proof technology.
The Election Commission of India, however, has brushed aside all such suggestions and maintained that it follows strict protocol to guard EVMs, and once looted, these machines are condemned and never find their way back into the system.
Information provided by the Election Commission under RTI has revealed at least 70 cases of theft of EVM across three states – Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh – over successive elections.
In Gujarat, a case dating back to 2007 has revealed an instance where during a training programme, the trainer handed over the EVMs to another person and went for lunch. According to information provided under RTI, “When he returned, the machine was found missing.” Investigation is on in the matter and lie detector tests have also been conducted.
So far, the main contention of the Election Commission on claims of EVM tampering has been that a machine has to be accessed for it to be tampered. Speaking to ET, Election Commission’s deputy commissioner, Sudeep Jain, said, “The referred cases (except Gujarat) are cases of loot during the election from polling stations and not thefts. EVMs were looted from the polling booths by naxalites/miscreants with a plausible ulterior motive to vitiate the election process. In all such cases, due process of law is being followed. However, these cases do not raise any doubt or cast any aspersion on the stringent administrative and security measures being followed for the safe custody, storage and use of EVMs/ VVPATs during the election, as well as non-election period.”
The Election Commission has maintained that there are layers of security for EVMs. Jain said if an EVM is stolen, it never makes it back into the system, so even the hypothetical question of it being tampered with and being used again does not arise.
Activist Tehseen Poonawalla, who has filed several complaints on EVM malfunctioning in different states, said, “The ECI has constantly shifted its goal post which has resulted in doubts being created in the minds of civil society activists and political parties. First, the ECI said EVMs just could not be hacked and promised to organise a hackathon, which they changed to a Sarkari demonstration. When we accepted the challenge to hack EVMs, the ECI once again changed the goalpost and said EVMs cannot be reached. The RTIs now prove that EVMs are being regularly stolen. This also means that the source code can be obtained through reverse engineering and results manipulated.”
