EVMs are tamper-proof, says Election Commission

New Delhi: The Election Commission on Thursday reiterated that electronic voting machines (EVMs) were tamper proof and termed the allegations by some political parties as “baseless, speculative and wild”.

“It is not for the first time that such allegations and suspicions have been raised. But none of those alleging tampering has been able to demonstrate to the commission… that EVMs used by it can be manipulated or tampered with,” the Election Commission said in a statement.

“Further, the EC did not receive specific complaints or concrete material from political parties/candidates about alleged tampering of EVMs in just-concluded assembly elections in five states. If any specific allegation with material facts is presented to the ECI, the same will be looked into with all seriousness,” the poll panel said.

“At this stage, baseless, speculative and wild allegations are being made which deserve to be rejected,” the poll panel said.

Since 2000, Electronic Voting Machines have been used in 107 elections to state legislative assemblies and three Lok Sabha elections held in 2004, 2009 and 2014.

The poll panel said that it will “further enhance confidence of citizens in its electoral process by deploying paper audit trail (VVPAT) in a phased manner”.

Interestingly, after the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had also raised similar misgivings about the integrity of the EVMs.

After Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Supremo Mayawati claimed that EVMs were tampered with to favour the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) also demanded that the Delhi municipal elections scheduled for next month be held using paper ballots.

The State election commission has rejected the demand, saying it was too late to do so at this stage.