Quashing reports that Election Commission of India’s Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were tamperable in the wake of claims by ‘cyber expert’ Syed Shuja, the Technical Experts Committee (TEC) members said that they are “non-tamperable”.
Prof. D T Shahani, Prof. Emeritus IIT Delhi and Prof. Rajat Moona, Director IIT Bhilai and Prof. D K Sharma, Prof. Emeritus IIT Bombay (Mumbai) re-affirmed to the ECI that the “ECI-EVMs are stand-alone machines designed to connect only amongst ECI-EVM units (Ballot Unit, Control Unit and VVPAT) through cables that remain in full public view”.
“There is no mechanism in ECI-EVMs to communicate with any device through wireless communication on any Radio Frequency. All versions of ECI-EVMs are regularly and rigorously tested against low to high wireless frequencies. These tests include and go beyond the standard tests specified for electronic equipments,” said the TEC.
They further said that ECI-EVMs are regularly tested for proper functioning under all kinds of operating conditions and they are also “regularly tested for code authentication and verification”.
Shuja earlier alleged that the two side printing of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) paper retains lower tampered print while the front side print as verified by the voter, gets erased. The TEC clarified that VVPATs use thermal printers which can print only on one side of thermal paper stating that “the print is fully visible through the viewing window”.
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However, the TEC pointed out, “The paper rolls used in VVPATs have only one-sided thermal coating and hence can be printed only on one side. The VVPAT paper print lasts at least for five years.”
A FIR u/s 505(1)(b) of IPC has been lodged against Shuja with DCP, New Delhi. While Shuja claimed he was part of ECIL (Electronic Corporation of India) and was associated with the design and development of EVMs during 2009-2014 along with his team members. However, the company in a statement clarified that neither him nor his teammates were on the pay roll of the company.
“Recently, Dr. Ranbir Singh, Chief Electoral Officer, Delhi while addressing young voters at The Citizens’ Townhall hosted by Josh Talks at Dr. Ambedkar International Centre, Delhi, emphasised that the EVMs are non-tamperable while stating that VVPATs offer even more transparency to voters.”
He said, “They offer multi-layered security which is both technical and physical and to ensure that the voter can be sure about his vote, a seven-second paper trail/slip would show his/her marked choice with name of the candidate, serial number and symbol of the candidate’s party. This is even greater commitment to transparency.”
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CMDs of Bharat Electronics Limited and ECIL, who are the sole manufacturers of EVMs and now also VVPATs, also reaffirmed that all the TEC prescribed Standard Operating Procedures are scrupulously adhered to and observed.
The TEC stated that ECI-EVMs “might malfunction sometimes like any other machine due to component failures and stop working”. “But even such a malfunctioning ECI-EVM would not record any vote incorrectly,” the Committee said.
