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Electronic Voting Machines
EC had known the fundamental flaws of EVMs since 2000; not remedied
By Prof Radhakrishnan
The result of the April-May 2009 General Elections to the 15th Lok Sabha has proved that Indian psephologists and media pundits on Indian politics, particularly from the electronic media, are worse than astrologers. But like astrologers even after they err they righteously peddle their wrongs as rights, and keep the viewers in their shibboleth. As this is an integral part of their disingenuous commercial and survival strategy, the less said, the better.
There have been complaints about election rigging. As this is nothing new, India has not had violence and mayhem as Iran witnessed recently. All the same the complaints cannot be taken lightly.
In an Op-Ed “Dangers of trusting them too much” in The New Indian Express of May 29, 2009, reproduced with minor modifications as another Op-Ed “Are electronic voting machines tamper-proof?” in The Hindu of June 17, 2009 Dr Subramanian Swamy wrote: “Is there a possibility of rigging electoral outcomes in a general election to the Lok Sabha? This question has arisen not only because of the unexpected number of seats won or lost by some parties in the recent contest. It is accentuated by the recent spate of articles published in reputed computer engineering journals and in the popular international press, which raise doubts about the integrity of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).”
Why are the EVMs so vulnerable? Swamy’s explanation is important: “Each step in the life cycle of a voting machine—from the time it is developed and installed to when the votes are recorded and the data transferred to a central repository for tallying—involves different people gaining access to the machines, often installing new software. It wouldn’t be hard, says an election official, to paint a parallel programme under another password on one or many voting machines that would, before voters arrived at the poll stations, ensure a pre-determined outcome.”
Swamy’s article is of huge political relevance in India, as evident from his own claims: “The Election Commission of India has known of these dangers since 2000. Dr MS Gill, the then CEC, had arranged at my initiative for Professor Sanjay Sarma, the father of RFID software fame at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and his wife Dr Gitanjali Swamy of Harvard, to demonstrate how unsafeguarded the chips in EVMs were. Some changes in procedure were made subsequently by the EC. But the fundamental flaws, which made them compliant to hacking, remained.”
In 2004, the Supreme Court’s first bench, comprising Chief Justice VN Khare and Justices Babu and Kapadia, directed the Election Commission to consider the technical flaws in EVMs put forward by Satinath Choudhary, a US-based software engineer, in a PIL. But the EC has failed to consider his representation.
Now several High Courts are hearing PILs on the EVMs. This is good news. I believe the time has arrived for the Supreme Court to transfer these cases to itself, and take a long, hard look at these riggable machines that favour a ruling party that can ensure a pliant Election Commission. Else, elections will soon lose their credibility and the demise of democracy will be near. Hence evidence must now be collected by all political parties to determine the number of constituencies in which they suspect rigging. The number will not exceed 75, in my opinion. We can identify them as follows: Any 2009 general election result in which the main losing candidate of a recognised party found that more than 10 per cent of the polling booths showed fewer than five votes per booth should be taken, prima facie, as a constituency in which rigging took place. This is because the main recognised parties usually have more than five party workers per booth, and hence with their families will poll a minimum of 25 votes per booth for their party candidate. If these 25 voters can give affidavits affirming whom they voted for, the High Court can treat this as evidence and order a full inquiry.
If the cases are transferred to the Supreme Court, in adjudicating them time is the essence. If the court deals with them in its usual lackadaisical style Swamy’s prophesy of doom, that is, elections soon losing their credibility and the demise of democracy will be near, may turn out to be a reality.
(courtesy: asiantribune.com)
EVMs ‘manipulated’ in Orissa polls, claims Azad, Union Health Minister
BHUBANESWAR: Congress general secretary in charge of the party’s affairs in Orissa Ghulam Nabi Azad alleged ‘manipulation’ of electronic voting machines (EVMs) had led to the party’s defeat in the assembly and parliamentary elections in the state.
“EVMs were manipulated during the poll which resulted in defeat of many Congress candidates,” Azad said in a press conference here.
The Congress won only 27 of the state’s 147 assembly seats and six of the 21 Lok Sabha constituencies in Orissa. The ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD), led by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, bagged 103 Assembly and 14 Lok Sabha seats.
Azad met the candidates in the twin polls and reviewed the reasons of dismal show, constituency wise. After the review meeting, he also charged the BJD with misusing the official machinery during the polls.
There was a wide-scale misuse of official machinery by the ruling BJD, which led to the debacle of the Congress party in the poll,” he alleged.
Azad blamed the BJD for converting the flagship schemes initiated by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) into other schemes of state government, extracting all the mileage. He conceded the “last minute changes in leadership and failure to choose the right candidate” were also responsible for the Congress’s defeat.
The meeting was attended by all the candidates, district level office-bearers and other senior leaders of the party. However, Azad did not say anything about any likely change in the state unit leadership following the poll debacle.
(IANS)
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