Hackathon challenge: Here's what EVM haters have to do on June 3

The Election Commission today issued a statement challenging state and central political parties to prove their stance on the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) being tampered with.

"The EC has put forth a challenge, which will be open from June 3. Interested participants must register by 5 pm on May 26. Either through a combination of key press or communication with the control unit, ballot unit or both via external hardware, participants must be able to prove their allegation of tampering," asserted Zaidi

The EVM challenge is expected to remain open four to five days and will be conducted in two stages: 

1)  General demonstration on claims of “tamperability” 

2) The process of proving whether EVMs used during recent polls were tampered with or not.

As discussed in the meeting, all upcoming elections on State and Centre level will be held using both EVMs and VVPATs

Here are the few conditions EC has set for the EVM antagonists: 

1) The hackathon challenge is open exclusively to the parties (both national and state) who took part in the recent Assembly elections.

2) Each party can appoint three people to take part in the challenge, all of them being Indians. 

3) Each party interested in the challenge can collect a maximum of 4 EVMs from the five poll gone states unless the EVMs are not those which were involved in the election petition or sealed will not be allowed in the hackathon. 

4) The challengers will be allowed to test the authenticity of the EVMs through any form of tests, In other words, the challenger can press any key on the machine, use any external device such as internet connection or Bluetooth to test and hamper the working of the machine. 

5) EVMs can be picked up from any warehouse by the party at their own expense.

6) The machines would, however, be kept under the same conditions as they were kept during the recent Assembly elections to prove that earlier machines were equally tamper-proof.  

7) If the machine is damaged in between the process or becomes non-functional or the challenger violates any given rules set by ECI, the challenge will be cancelled.