Give us 72 hours to prove EVM tampering: Arvind Kejriwal

Arvind Kejriwal (Source: Express Photo by Amit Mehra/File)

Ahead of the MCD elections in Delhi, AAP national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Monday once again expressed doubts over the security features of the Electronic Voting Machines. Claiming that the EVMs were being tampered with, Kejriwal alleged that all the voting machines that will be used in the upcoming Delhi civic elections and bypolls across the country are being brought in from Uttar Pradesh. “There are a lot of machines in India, then why are machines coming from UP? 300 EVMs were brought in from Govind Nagar from UP for Madhya Pradesh bypolls,” he said. “Technically, EVMs can’t be used or shifted 45 days from poll results. So what was the Election Commission’s compulsion?”

The Delhi chief minister also cited the example of the recent trial of VVPAT machines conducted by the Election Commission in Madhya Pradesh. Every vote cast during the trial left a paper trail for the Bharatiya Janata Party. The EC launched a probe and suspended  three SHOs in connection to the incident. Kejriwal urged the EC to make public the software used in the EVMs. “It doesn’t seem like all machines are tampered, some are being used in a few areas. I wrote to the EC today, we have the experts to study the software if you don’t have them. Imagine the scale of fraud if these machines were used in UP,” he said.

Kejriwal once again demanded that the upcoming civic polls in the capital must be conducted using paper ballots. He has also written to the EC claiming that “our experts” will prove that the voting machines can be tampered with. “I challenge the ECI to give us 72 hours to prove it”.