Former CEC Defends EVMs as Stand-Alone Machines, Rejects Congress Accusations of Manipulation

Former Chief Election Commissioner, S.Y Quraishi, reacting to the Congress's call for an all-out inquiry into alleged infirmities noticed in some EVMs used in the recently held Assembly polls in Haryana, said that EVMs cannot be hacked as they are stand-alone machines.
Talking to IANS, former CEC Quraishi said, "I have heard about it on the TV that Congress is alleging that there were some problems in the EVMs. But, I don't think it is possible as it's a stand-alone machine and these machines were built in 2013. At that time, there was a different regime. They are saying that they lost when the EVM was on 90 percent or full battery and they won where the battery was 60-70 percent. The Election Commission (EC) also promised that they would investigate this matter. But, I don't think anything will come out of it.

"Because the compartment of the battery is separate from the EVM. And sometimes, the battery is changed in the middle of the poll. It doesn't affect the number of votes that have already been cast. There is no change in the data, so all these allegations are not factually correct. Now, it will be interesting to see what the EC mentions in the report," he added.

S.Y Quraishi puts an end to all these claims by the Congress that EVMs were tampered with, stating further, "I don't think the battery can decide who is winning or losing the elections."

According to me, they may have changed the battery in the last hour as they can't change the machines. Whatever they are alleging is not possible as there are three seals in the EVM. There are two seals which are inside and one is on the outer side.

"These seals are printed at the printing press of Nashik where our currency is printed. They have a unique number which is on our notes also. The polling agents sign on it on the day of the elections. And when the machine is taken out on counting day, the first thing they do is to check whether the seals are intact or not. Then after doing all the necessary processes, they start the operation of counting, he added.".

This has been the repeated concern raised by the Congress regarding slow online up-gradation of the Assembly poll results in Haryana. It had also demanded a thorough probe into alleged irregularities identified in some EVMs in the counting of votes for the assembly elections.

The EC dismissed the charge of slowdown in up-gradation alleged by the Congress on October 8 and assured to investigate it.

The Congress Wednesday decided to set up a technical team to probe the complaints and alleged discrepancies related to the EVMs flagged by its candidates in Haryana.