AAP will not attend EC’s EVM challenge

New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which was most vociferous in questioning the reliability of the machines,  has decided to stay away from the Election Commission’s challenge to demonstrate that its electronic voting machines (EVMs) can be tampered with.

The EC announced on Friday that out of eight parties only Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party and the CPI-M accepted the dare. Friday was the last date to enlist for the challenge.

Delhi deputy chief minister and AAP leader Manish Sisodia said a perception was being created that AAP has backtracked from hackathon.

“Is the EC holding a hackathon? The EC is itself saying that it is not holding any hackathon, then from where did the question of backtracking come from.

“You (the EC) are saying not to touch, open the machines or carry any tool for the exercise. You are asking to challenge it. You cannot simply keep the machine before us and then ask us to hack it. It is the EC that has backtracked. If you want to hack the machines then you should allow us to touch it,” he said.

The Congress said the “extensive terms and conditions” that the challenge imposes prevents challengers to conduct a thorough test of the EVMs.

“We urge you to reconsider relaxing rules of the challenge and their inclusion undermines the very credibility of the initiative,” the party said.

The poll panel had invited seven national and 49 state recognised parties for the challenge but had kept away independents and smaller parties which had contested polls in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Manipur and Goa. Foreign experts too have been barred.

There will be two counters for the two parties to try and hack the machines. Both will get four hours each for the task. The NCP and the CPI-M are the only two parties which agreed to participate in the EC’s EVM hacking challenge

As per the framework chalked out by the EC, each participating party can have three members and will get four hours to prove that the machines can be tampered with.