EVMs Tamper-Proof, Monitored By Technical Experts:CEC

Chandigarh:Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said Monday electronic voting machines were tamper-proof and an expert committee was looking after their functioning.

There is absolutely nothing to doubt about the integrity of the system, the CEC said while addressing a gathering at the inauguration of the new academic session of the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) here.

"Since there are a galaxy of technocrats sitting here, I must inform you that the entire functioning of EVMs (electronic voting machines) is being looked after by a highly-qualified technical committee," Arora said.

The CEC's remarks comes in the backdrop of several political parties in the past alleging that EVMs are prone to tampering.

The members of the committee are not the kind who can be approached, influenced, coaxed by anybody, Arora said, asserting that EVMs cannot be tampered with.

“...Every citizen of India should know that this is not a machine that can be tampered. There is difference between tampering and malfunctioning. Any machine can malfunction. You purchase a new car, it can malfunction within a week...,” he said.

Without taking names, the CEC said people keep raising issues about EVMs.

"These days there is lot of talk about EVMs. I am not a person who normally gives many interviews, but recently I had to give one or two and I said that there were elections in May 2014 in India and you had 'X' result, then there were elections to Delhi assembly, you had 'Y' result.

"Now, recently we had elections in five states, we had different results, in between there were bypolls, you had different results. Can it be that when there is a 'X' result, EVM is faulty and when there is a 'Y' result, EVM is kind of malfunctioning?,” he asked.(PTI)

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