EVM challenge on as scheduled tomorrow: EC

The Election Commission tonight said its much-hyped EVM challenge is "on" as scheduled tomorrow after the Uttarakhand High Court rejected a plea questioning the constitutionality of the move.
"The EVM challenge is on as scheduled. The NCP and the CPI-M have nominated three persons each for the challenge," a Commission spokesperson said.
He said the two parties will get separate halls to try and tamper with the machines. The challenge will take place between 10 am and 2 pm.
The challenge was organised after several major opposition parties had claimed that the faith of people in the machines has eroded.

The BSP and the AAP had alleged that the machines used in the recent assembly elections were tampered with and favoured the BJP. Later, several other parties had joined the chorus and wanted the EC to revert to paper ballots.
The Commission has pulled out from its strong rooms in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Uttarakhand 14 electronic voting machines used in the recent assembly polls there for the challenge.

The NCP and the CPI-M were the only parties which had applied to participate in the challenge. The poll panel had invited the seven national and 49 state parties recognised by it for the challenge. It had left out smaller parties and Independents who had contested the recent polls from participating. Even foreign experts are barred.

Since the two parties had not given their preference for the EVMs they would like to tamper with during the challenge, the Commission has brought to Delhi 14 machines -- from Ghaziabad and Gautam Buddha Nagar in UP, Patiala and Bhatinda from Punjab and Dehradun from Uttarakhand.
While each participating party can use a maximum of four EVMs for the challenge, sources in the commission said extra machines were also kept as back up keeping in mind any eventuality.
The challengers will get four hours each to tamper with the machines. The challenge will begin at 10 am and end at 2 pm.

Members of a technical committee which helps the EC evaluate the EVMs would judge the proceedings.
Announcing the contours of the 'EVM challenge', the EC had said it has been divided into two parts. First, the parties will have to prove that the EVMs used in the assembly elections in the five states were tampered with to favour a particular candidate or political party by altering the results stored in them.
The claimants will have to alter the results in the control units used during these polls in exactly the same conditions in which EVMs remain under the technical and administrative safeguards of the EC after elections.

They can use a combination of keys on EVMs or over the air communication devices such as cellphone and bluetooth to tamper with the machine to change the results, he said.
Under part two of the challenge, the participants will have to prove that the EVMs used in the assembly polls were manipulated before or on the poll day.
The participant would be considered to have "failed" the challenge if the EVM stops functioning due its inbuilt anti- tampering mechanism.
Also, the challenger would be considered to have failed if it showed the result of the booth where it was used during the assembly polls even after manipulation.