Never promised hackathon, only EVM challenge: Election Commission

NEW DELHI: Dismissing Aam Aadmi Party's charge of 'running away' from 'open hackathon', the Election Commission on Saturday said it never made any such promise and does not believe that an 'open hackathon' is necessary for safeguarding the election process. The poll panel responded to the two parties separately. It also rejected Congress's demand to allow it to access the motherboard of the EVMs in the planned challenge. "The EVMs are not accessible to any unauthorised person at any stage before, during or after the polls and as such, the question of access to all the components, such as the motherboard for tampering the EVM machines does not arise," PTI quoted EC's letter to Congress. The EC said it had clearly explained during the All Party Meeting on May 12 -- where the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) representatives were present -- that it will offer an "EVM Challenge and not a hackathon". In its response to the AAP, the Commission said "no such promise about a no-holds barred hackathon was ever made or announced by the Commission... during the all Party Meeting on May 12, the Commission had clearly explained that it will offer an EVM challenge and not a hackathon." The commission said that changing the EVM motherboard was like permitting them to "manufacture a new machine" and introduce it into the system. Some parties have demanded they be allowed access to the machines used in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls. Serious questions were raised over reliability of EVMs and 16 parties urged EC to revert to the ballot paper system claiming faith of people in the machines has eroded. The Bahujan Samaj Party and Aam Aadmi Party had alleged that the machines used in the recent assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Goa and Punjab were tampered with and favoured the Bharatiya Janata Party. Later, several other parties had joined the chorus and waned the EC to revert to paper ballots. The EC has already announced that it will ensure a voter verifiable paper audit trail or VVAT in all future elections to the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies. (With inputs from agencies)