Election Commission, AAP to organise separate EVM challenge on Saturday

The Election Commission on Friday said the EVM challenge is “on” as scheduled Saturday after the Uttarakhand High Court rejected a plea questioning the constitutionality of the move.

“The EVM challenge is on as scheduled. The NCP and the CPI-M have nominated three persons each for the challenge,” a Commission spokesperson said.

He said the two parties will get separate halls to try and tamper with the machines. The challenge will take place between 10 am and 2 pm.

The challenge was organised after several major opposition parties had claimed that the faith of people in the machines has eroded.

The BSP and the AAP had alleged that the machines used in the recent assembly elections were tampered with and favoured the BJP. Later, several other parties had joined the chorus and wanted the EC to revert to paper ballots.

Also Read: Election Commission dares parties to tamper with EVM: Here are the rules of 'EVM Challenge'

However, the Aam Aadmi Party will not participate in Elections Commission’s EVM challenge and will organise its own hackathon on the same day.

The Election Commission had rejected AAP’s 'open hackathon' request, after that the party decided to organise its own EVM challenge.

The party will invite wizards and technical experts from political parties, the Election Commission and also the companies which provide the electronic voting machines (EVMs) to the poll panel, for the challenge.