Cong welcomes EC's decision, says satisfied with EVM's live demo

Responding to the challenge given by the Election Commission of India (ECI) to all the political parties to hack the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM), the Congress Party on Sunday said that their party only needed assurance from the poll panel that the machines cannot be tampered with and since they have proved it, they are now satisfied.

"It is not a challenge, Election Commission just had to convince us that the polling machine is tamper proof and since they have assured that it cannot be hacked, we are satisfied with it," Congress leader P.C. Chacko told ANI.

He said that the political parties had some doubts regarding the tampering of the voting machines after the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections and just to remove it the parties jointly made a representation to the Election Commission.

"Some parties were making this as an issue, disproportionately blowing up the whole thing to cover up their failure. Like, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) lost badly and to cover up their failure they were disproportionately blowing up the issue," he said.

Meanwhile, another Congress leader P.L. Punia expressed happiness over the live demo of EVM by the poll panel and said that it has guaranteed the authenticity of the voting machine.

"It is neither linked with any network, it is a different system, which cannot be accessed by anyone. This is a very good step and it will make things more clear and if really it cannot be tampered then it is a great sign of relief," he said.

Earlier on Saturday, the poll panel asked the Opposition parties and experts to prove that the EMVs, used in the Assembly elections, can be tampered with.

However, the EC put forth terms and conditions for the parties attempting to tamper the machines.

The EC said that only those parties, national and regional, that took part in the recently concluded Assembly elections can hack the EVMs.

It asked each party to appoint three people to hack the EVMs.

The poll panel said that the EVMs need to be picked from its warehouses in Delhi at parties' own cost.

The EC said that if a party fails to report at the alloted time, without prior intimation or approval, their challenge shall be cancelled.

It said each political party will get to pick at least four EVMs of their choice from any four polling stations out of the five poll-gone states. The EVMs involved in the election petition or those sealed will not be allowed in the hackathon.

The poll panel said that if the EVM becomes non-functional after the tamper attempt or if the tamper result is same as the one put out by EC or if the challenger violates the rules-set, the challenge will be struck down.