EVMs may malfunction but can't be tampered with: CEC Sunil Arora

CHANDIGARH: Chief Election Commissioner of India Sunil Arora said on Monday that electronic voting machines are tamper-proof and an expert committee is looking after their functioning. His remarks come in the backdrop of several political parties in the past alleging that EVMs are prone to tampering.

"Every citizen of India should know that this is not a machine that can be tampered with. There is a difference between tampering and malfunctioning. Any machine can malfunction. You purchase a new car, it can malfunction within a week," said Arora 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 is 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. The members of the committee are not the kind who can be approached or influenced by anybody,’’ he said.

Without taking names, Arora said people kept raising issues about EVMs. "These days there is a lot of talk about EVMs. I said there were elections in May 2014 in India and you had ‘X’ result, then there were elections to the 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 an ‘X’ result, the EVM is faulty and when there is a ‘Y’ result, the EVM is malfunctioning?” he asked.

On the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, he said, “We will try our level best and I am sure we will succeed in having a credible, fair, impartial and ethical election.”

Arora also reviewed the election preparedness of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh in the wake of the upcoming general elections. The Commission discussed multifarious issues related to the provision of Assured Minimum Facilities (AMFs) at the polling stations, strengthening of manpower and infrastructure of CEO’s offices, filling up of all vacant positions of elections functionaries at the field level, availability of EVMs/VVPATs and other election material, and adequate budget provisions.