The Election Commission (EC) on Sunday rejected allegations of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) hacking in the Mumbai North West Lok Sabha seat, stating that the EVM is a foolproof standalone device with no provision for communication. In a press conference, Returning Officer Vandana Suryavanshi said that voting machines do not require an OTP to function.
The clarification comes after a media report claimed that a relative of Shiv Sena's candidate, who won the polls from Mumbai's North West by 48 votes, had a phone that unlocks an EVM.
"EVMs are stand-alone devices without any wired or wireless connectivity with units outside the EVM system," Suryavanshi said, rejecting claims of using a mobile phone to unlock the device. "For EVMs, there is no need for an OTP. The results are generated by pressing a button."
The returning officer said a "complete lie" was being spread by a newspaper, "which some leaders are using to create a false narrative".
On Saturday, the Mumbai Police filed an FIR against Mangesh Pandilkar, a relative of Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Waikar, and also against poll officer Dinesh Gurav. According to the FIR details accessed by India Today, Dinesh Gurav, an election staff member working as an encore operator, was permitted to use a mobile phone for data compilation, through which an OTP was generated for data entry. The police allege that Mangesh Pandilkar used the same phone for making and receiving calls.
Earlier today, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said EVMs in India is a "black box" which nobody is allowed to scrutinise, and asserted that "serious concerns" are being raised about transparency in India's electoral process. "Democracy ends up becoming a sham and prone to fraud when institutions lack accountability," he said.
In a tweet, Elon Musk said we should eliminate electronic voting machines as he suggested there was a risk of being hacked by humans or AI.
BJP's Rajeev Chandrasekhar responded to Musk, saying this was a "huge sweeping generalization statement that implies no one can build secure digital hardware. Wrong." "@elonmusk's view may apply to US n other places - where they use regular compute platforms to build Internet-connected Voting machines. But Indian EVMs are custom designed, secure, and isolated from any network or media - No connectivity, no bluetooth, wifi, Internet. ie there is no way in. Factory programmed controllers that cannot be reprogrammed."