EC to hold EVM demo on Saturday, announce dates for hackathon

Move follows allegations of EVM tampering in assembly elections by several opposition parties

The Election Commission will on Saturday hold a demonstration on the working of EVMs and VVPATs to allay fears that these can be tampered with in favour of a particular candidate or party. It will also announce dates for a EVM-hacking challenge in the wake of opposition concerns over the reliability of EVMs.

As per an Election Commission announcement, the live demonstration of the functioning of the EVMs and VVPATs will be followed by a press conference.

The poll panel had announced after an all-party meeting on May 12 that it will hold the challenge to let opposition political parties prove their contention that the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) used in the February-March assembly elections were, or could be, tampered with.

It had also announced that all future elections will be held using VVPAT (Voter-verifiable paper audit trail).

A VVPAT slip allows a voter to verify if his vote has been rightly recorded by the EVM.

Several opposition politicians had alleged EVM-tampering in assembly polls but the commission ruled out such a possibility.

Representatives of the Bahujan Samaj Party, Congress, Aam Admi Party, and Trinamool Congress had raised concerns over EVMs at the all-party meeting.

The AAP had welcomed the poll panel's announcement of holding an EVM challenge but insisted on the 'hackathon'. The party said given a chance, it can prove that the machines can be hacked.

The Trinamool Congress had demanded a return to paper balloting in the country.