EVMs are stand-alone machines, can't be manipulated: Former CEC refutes Cong's accusations

As the Congress called for a comprehensive investigation into alleged irregularities observed in certain Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) used in the recent Assembly polls in Haryana, former Chief Election Commissioner, S.Y Quraishi 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 TV that the Congress is alleging that there were some issues in the EVMs. But, I don't think it is possible as it is 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 per cent or full battery and they won where the battery was 60-70 per cent. 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 further refuted all the claims by the Congress of irregularities in EVMs and added, "I don't think the battery can decide who is winning or losing the elections."

"According to me, it can be possible that they have changed the battery in the last hour as they cannot change the machines. However, 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 stated.

The Congress is continuously bringing up the issue of slow online updating of the Assembly poll results in Haryana. The party also called for a comprehensive investigation into alleged irregularities observed in certain EVMs during the vote-counting process for the Assembly elections.

However, the EC on October 8 rejected the Congress' charge of a slowdown in updating and promised to investigate it.

On Thursday, the Congress decided to set up a technical team to investigate the complaints and alleged discrepancies related to the EVMs raised by its candidates in Haryana.