EVMs can’t be hacked, will respond to all plaints: CEC

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar on Tuesday rubbished the doubts raised by main Opposition party Congress on the tampering of electronic voting machines (EVMs), saying that they cannot be hacked like pagers “as some people are alluding”.

Kumar added that the poll body would soon respond in detail to all 20 complaints on EVMs received by it individually, and share the details on its website. He said now, the issue of batteries was being raised, after earlier allegations like hacking of the machines, adding that something new would emerge the next time.

“I would like to make it clear that EVMs cannot be tampered with or hacked, like some people are saying. They say that if blasts can be coordinated through pagers, why can’t EVMs be hacked? Pagers are connected to the Internet, EVMs are not,” Kumar said.

He added: “The machines are checked six months before an election. We have received 20 complaints related to EVMs (in connection with the Haryana Assembly elections) and we will give a detailed response to them individually to each candidate.

The poll body chief made these remarks while addressing a press conference on the announcement of Assembly elections schedule for Maharashtra and Jharkhand. Congress leader Rashid Alvi had asked if Israel could bomb Lebanon by hacking pagers, why could EVMs not be hacked. He had alleged that EVMs were being misused by the BJP and if free and fair elections were held in Maharashtra, the BJP would be wiped out from the state.

Reacting to the allegations, Kumar said today: “Several things came before batteries, like hacking. We think that something new will come the next time. If you look at the past elections, all of them have given different results and therefore it cannot be that only when results of one’s choice don’t come, only then things are wrong.

After the Haryana results, Congress had alleged that on EVMs whose batteries were 99 per cent or completely charged, the BJP had won, doubting how the batteries could remain fully charged when there was a gap of three days between polling and counting process. The Congress, which was widely tipped to win the Haryana Assembly elections, managed to win 37 out of the total 90 seats while the BJP won 48 seats and completed a hat-trick of wins in the state.

The CEC today said EVMs are checked six months prior to polls and there is a comprehensive process involved in which there is no possibility of any tampering with them.