Election Commission: Less than 24 hours are left for the first phase of voting to begin under the Lok Sabha elections 2024. Just before the voting, the hearing on the authenticity of EVM machines is going on in the Supreme Court. On Thursday, the Election Commission of India made it clear before the country’s Supreme Court that EVM is an independent machine. It cannot be hacked or tampered with. There is no need to redesign the VVPAT.
The Election Commission in its statement told the Supreme Court that if manual counting is done instead of EVMs, then the possibility of human error cannot be ruled out. Human participation in the current system has become minimal.
The Election Commission told the Supreme Court that the allegations of an extra vote appearing in the ‘Electronic Voting Machine’ (EVM) during the voting exercise in Kasargod, Kerala are false. The apex court was hearing petitions in which it was requested to completely verify the votes cast through EVMs with the ‘Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail’ (VVPAT).
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The Election Commission said in its statement to the Supreme Court that EVM can neither be hacked nor tampered. If manual counting is done instead of EVMs, then the possibility of human error cannot be ruled out. In the current system, human participation has become minimal.
‘Reports of EVM tampering are false’
Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Nitesh Kumar Vyas told the bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Dutta, “These reports are false. We have investigated the allegations with the District Magistrate and it has come to light that these are false. We will submit a detailed report to the court.” Vyas was present in the court to tell the bench about the functioning of EVMs. Advocate Prashant Bhushan had raised this issue. On behalf of the petitioner NGO ‘Association for Democratic Reforms’, Bhushan told the court that there are such reports that EVMs were showing an extra vote during the ‘mock poll’ exercise.
What Is the Difference Between Discontinued EVMs in the UK and US and Those Used in India?
Actually, the Election Commission’s lawyers compared the EVMs removed in European countries and America and the Indian EVMs. Foreign machines were connected to the network and there was a possibility of them being affected, whereas India’s EVM is a standalone machine. It is not connected to any network. In foreign countries, EVMs were made by private companies but in India it is made by a public sector company. There was no system of vote confirmation in foreign EVMs but in India it is confirmed through VVPAT.
Must Read:
EVM: The Controversial Backbone of Indian Elections! Amid Supreme Court Debate, know everything about this machine?: Are EVMs Truly Secure? What did the Election Commission answer in the Supreme Court?.
