'Parties may apply by May 26 to participate in EVM challenge'

Political parties keen on taking the EVM challenge must confirm their interest for the same to the Election Commission by May 26, Punjab's Chief Electoral Officer V K Singh said here today.
"The political parties can confirm their interest in the electronic voting machines (EVMs) challenge by sending an email to evmchallenge@eci.Gov.In, wherein the details of the nominated members must be furnished as per the prescribed performa.
"Only those political parties which will respond by 5 PM on May 26 to the ECI shall be allowed to participate in the challenge beginning June 3," he said.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has given an open challenge to national and state political parties which participated in the recent state assemblies elections in Goa, Punjab, Manipur, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.

"Those intending to participate in the EVM challenge may nominate a maximum of three persons only," Singh said.
The election official further stated that there were no possibilities of manipulation in EVMs during transportation or at the place of storage.

"The machines are kept in a double-lock system under appropriate security at the district headquarters. Their safety is periodically checked. The election authorities do not open the strong room. But they do regularly check whether the strong room is fully protected and whether the lock is in proper condition or not," he said.
Further, strong rooms are always opened in the presence of representative of political parties. No unauthorised person can get access to the EVMs at any point of time, the official asserted.

The Punjab CEO said an annual physical verification of all EVMs is done by district election officers (DEOs) and the report sent to ECI during the non-election period.
He also said that technology has helped in making these machines tamper proof.
"The ECI-EVMs use some of the most sophisticated technological features like one time programmable (OTP) microcontrollers, dynamic coding of key codes, date and time stamping of each and every key press, advanced encryption technology and EVM-tracking software to handle EVM logistics, among others to make the machine 100 per cent tamper proof," Singh said.
In addition to these, new model M3 EVMs have tamper detection and self-diagnostics as added features, he said.

"OTP software implies that the programme in the EVM cannot be altered, re-written or re-read by anyone under safe custody of ECI. If anyone makes an unauthorised attempt, the machines will become in-operative and these are produced indigenously by two PSU manufacturers viz Bharat Electronics Ltd, Bengaluru and Electronics Corporation of India Ltd, Hyderabad," he said.
The Punjab CEO said the Election Commission is globally acknowledged as the "Gold Standard" in conduct of free and fair elections with impeccable integrity.
Several opposition parties have claimed that the faith of people in the voting machines has eroded. The BSP and AAP had alleged that the machines used in the recent state assembly elections were tampered with and favoured the BJP. Later, several other parties had joined the chorus and waned the EC to revert to paper ballots.

The EC has already announced that it will ensure paper trail of voting in all future elections to the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies.