EVMs are 100 percent dependable, says former CEC

Asserting that the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) are 100 percent dependable, former Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi on Wednesday said one should not believe in rumours as tampering is not possible.

"The rumours of tampering with EVMs are just rumours. During the elections, these rumours normally surface. I would like to assure everybody that I have seen EVMs very closely, they are 100 percent dependable and no tampering is possible. The kind of rumours that you press a button and the vote is going to somebody else is absolutely not true. Nobody should entertain such things," Quraishi told ANI.

He said that the EVMs are checked many times before the representatives of various political parties.

"In any case, they are checked at two or three levels. In the first level check, every single machine is thoroughly checked by the engineers in the presence of the representatives of the political parties. Closer to elections, after the candidates have been decided, the machines are checked again. And on the poll day, an hour before the poll, there is a mock poll, which means that 100 votes will pressed and the results are checked in presence of the party agents," he said.

Earlier in the day, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal said that his party would meet the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and urge him to allow the party to put banners outside each booth to educate the voters as they suspected tampering of EVMs ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections.

The elections for the 70-member Delhi Assembly will be held in a single phase on February 7. The counting of votes will take place on February 10. The last day of campaigning is February 5.