‘EVMs never sent to South Africa’: EC asks Congress MP to expose source of false info

“We have been informed of this by various sources including the fact all these EVMs have been received directly back from South Africa without going through the process of re-validation and re-verification by the appropriate software/mechanisms by the manufacturer i.e. Electronics Corporation of India,” the Congress leader wrote in his letter, as cited by the EC in its response.

The EC said it had “never sent EVMs to South Africa for use in their elections” and that it had never imported EVMs from any country. It added that EVMs are not used in South African elections and this could have been verified from the website of the country’s Election Commission. It said all EVMs used in the Karnataka elections were new ones from ECI and this was communicated to the Karnataka Congress president as per protocol in a letter on March 29.

The EC said that being a national party of long standing, the Congress would be aware of the protocols for first-level checking and randomisation of EVMs and that Congress representatives were present when these processes were carried out in Karnataka.

“The factual basis of the information provided by the ‘various sources’ with regard to South Africa being clearly non-existent, categorically empower INC, being the entity targeted by false information, to publicly expose such mischievous ‘sources’. Further, you may ensure such rumour- mongers are brought to justice so that INC’s long-standing reputation of responsible stakeholder of Indian electoral system is not dented,” the EC wrote.