Bring back paper ballot, 16 parties write to Election Commission

Ahead of the upcoming MCD polls in Delhi, Chief Minister Arvind Kerjiwal raised doubts about the security features of the EVMs and claimed that they were vulnerable to hacking. The issue was first raised by BSP supremo Mayawati after suffering huge loses in the recently concluded Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls. The ruling BJP claimed the same parties that had won elections using the EVMs are now complaining after tasting defeat.

Earlier this month, The Indian Express reported that the EC is likely to throw an open challenge for anyone who can prove that the voting machines can be tampered with. “We will soon fix a date for this open challenge. In 2009, too, the ECI had thrown an open challenge for anyone to demonstrate how EVMs owned by the ECI can be tampered with. No one could prove it. Since such apprehensions have been raised once again, we have decided to repeat the exercise to put all doubts to rest,” said sources.