CPM asks EC to convene meeting to discuss EVMs

“The EC has taken note of all doubts expressed by us and said they will consider the suggestions we have made,” Yechury said after the meeting.

The CPI(M) leaders also urged the EC to convene an all-party meeting “to allay the fears and ensure that the credibility of the election process is not questioned,” Karat said after the meeting.

A very detailed examination of the machines was carried out in which the CPI(M) side raised issues concerning the reliability of the EVMs,including the possibility of incorporating ‘Trojan horse’ virus into the EVM chip.

They also raised the possibility of manipulating the chips during manufacturing,insertion and transportation stages and said there was “lack of control” by the EC over the entire technical process of the EVMs.

A hue and cry was raised three months ago when former Delhi chief secretary Omesh Saigal claimed that the EVMs were not tamper proof. The issue was then raised by several prominent politicians including L K Advani,Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan.

The EC had then rejected the contention regarding fallibility of the EVMs,but later decided to invite all those who had expressed reservations about the machine “to come and demonstrate the points made in their allegations.” The CPI(M),which had written to the EC on the issue,also questioned the lack of third party check,inspection or guarantee on the programming of the chips and also pointed out that certain western countries,especially in Europe,have banned the usage of EVMs,party sources said.

The party suggested that the entire manufacturing process has to be done under the control of the EC and for this,an exclusive technical department needed to be established.

Maintaining that both hardware and software of the EVMs should be in public domain,the CPI(M) said all the machines should be randomly changed from state to state in every election.

Chips manufactured by BEL and ECIL should be allowed for yearly random third-party inspections either by National Informatics Centre or the IITs and a verification tool should be developed and made available to all,the party told the EC at the meeting.

Earlier in his letter to the EC,Karat has said,“amongst the concerns are the possibility of tampering with the programme chip embedded in the EVMs and further the lack of any verifiable record of the vote cast by a voter.