The Election Commission of India is all set to throw “an open challenge” to verify the infallibility of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) following allegations of tampering of the machines during the recently-concluded Assembly elections, The Indian Express reported on Tuesday.
“We will soon fix a date for this open challenge. In 2009, too, the ECI had thrown an open challenge for anyone to demonstrate how EVMs owned by the ECI can be tampered with. No one could prove it. Since such apprehensions have been raised once again, we have decided to repeat the exercise to put all doubts to rest,” the publication quoted sources as saying.
This comes a day after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal cast aspersions on the poll body, challenging it by saying that if his government is given the machines for 72 hours, they can prove how they can be rigged.
Political Parties Allege “Large-Scale EVM Fraud”
The EVMs controversy erupted after several parties challenged the reliability of the machines after the BJP swept the Uttar Pradesh elections. Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh, Arvind Kejriwal in Punjab, Lalu Prasad in Bihar and the Congress as a whole, have over the past few weeks, sought an investigation into this “large-scale EVM fraud”.
Reacting to Kejriwal’s allegations, the BJP on Monday said that the chief minister is making excuses as he knows he won't be able to win the Municipal Corporation of Delhi elections that is to be held on 23 April.
Talks of manipulation in the machines escalated on Saturday after reports of a VVPAT machine used during a trial in Madhya Pradesh dispensing only slips with BJP’s poll symbol emerged.
Despite reports, the commission has been repeatedly rubbishing these allegations as “baseless.”
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