EC under scanner, critics to show EVMs not foolproof

NO CLUE: EC refused to answer questions put up to the Commission through a RTI.

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New Delhi: Under fire from political parties and NGOs over the credibility of electronic voting machines, the Election Commission on Friday will allow its critics to demonstrate that the EVMs can be tampered with.

The Commission will meet political; leaders and technical experts who claim they have developed software that can manipulate EVMs.

But the Commission is still cagey with information on the EVMs, refusing to answer many details asked for in an RTI application.

Former Bharatiya Janata Party MP Kirit Somaiya will represent political parties to provide proof for their claim.

"Neither Election Commission nor state authorities nor companies BEL and ECIL can check the chip whether it is hacked or not," Somaiya claims.

Then on Saturday, Omesh Saigal, a retired bureaucrat, who first spoke about how EVMs can be manipulated, will display his new software to the Election Commission.

Based on a source code like the EVM, Saigal claims that the software can ensure that EVMs can be manipulated even after the election is over and the machine locked.

"I can tell the EVM that I want the manipulation done in any fashion at the any stage - during mock poll and during actual polling, says software expert Anil Lall.

"We will prove this within the premises of Election Commission," adds Saigal.

While it may have agreed to meet, the Election Commission has refused to answer many questions that Saigal had put up to the Commission through an RTI application.

The Commission so far has been claiming that EVMs cannot be tampered without knowing the source code of the machine. Yet crucial questions about the source code and the assembling of the EVM are what it has decided to duck in the RTI.

What's unanswered includse:

• Names of companies involved in assembly of EVMs?

• Who prepared source code and when? Is it exclusive to the Election Commission?

• Did they itself check the software including the programming code of the machines at the time of delivery?

• How does the EC satisfy itself that the program was the same as the program in the source code?

• Who are the manufacturers of the chip placed in the EVMs?

• Name of the companies apart from Election Commission with whom the source code is available?

• How is the source code burnt into the chip/printed circuit of the EVM and the company doing it?

"By withholding this information they are enabling me to raise my finger at them," says Saigal.

However, another critic VV Rao feels the Commission is dodging the issue. Rao who had filed a case against the EVMs in the Supreme Court is still waiting to meet the Commission. His technical team had made a dummy EVM to test the tamper software.

"It is the holding the country to ransom. They have to look into this," says Rao.

The demonstrations will be a a test of fire for the Election Commission and its much talked about EVMs.

While the Commission has said that it will videograph the demonstrations and make it public later but its reluctance to divulge details will only fuel rumours.