New Delhi: The Election Commission on Saturday reasserted that electronic voting machines (EVMs) were impervious to tampering and said none of the political parties or others who had raised doubts about their reliability could prove they could be fudged.
The poll panel had this week called all those who had raised objections about the EVMs for a demonstration that ended on Saturday.
The meeting was called "to set at rest any misgiving" about the use of EVMs in general elections, a statement issued here said.
"The outcome of this exercise is that none of the persons, who were given the opportunity, could actually demonstrate any tamperability of the ECI-EVM, in any of the hundred machines put on display. They either failed or chose not to demonstrate," it said.
Those invited included political parties, petitioners before various courts and some individuals who had been writing to the commission on this issue.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) L K Advani was the first to express doubt about EVMs after the May-April Lok Sabha elections. Taking a cue, other Opposition leaders also voiced their doubts.
The poll panel said the demonstration was undertaken to ensure that not "even a small shade of doubt about any aspect of its operation" remained.
"Today (Saturday), the commission once again completely reaffirms its faith in the infallibility of the EVMs. These are fully tamper-proof, as ever," the statement added.
For the demonstration, 100 EVM samples were obtained on random basis from 10 states.
These were kept at the commission's office here for scrutiny and for any application to establish its alleged fallibility. The demonstration was held in the presence of a technical expert group as well as engineers representing the EVM manufacturers.
"The Election Commission would like to underline that it always had a firm conviction and complete satisfaction that EVMs could not be tampered with.
"Its faith on the machine has never wavered through the conduct of elections in the last many years including the nationwide general elections in 2004 and 2009 and over 30 general elections in state assemblies during the last five years," the statement said.
In the past, no one has been able to actually demonstrate that EVMs can be tampered with or manipulated, the commission said.
"What has been demonstrated or claimed to have been demonstrated is on a privately assembled 'look-alike of ECI-EVMs' and not the actual ECI-EVM," it said.
Among those who attended the meet were Kirit Somaiya, vice-president of the BJP in Maharashtra.
"He categorically stated that he was not opposed to the use of EVMs and he had never wanted to do any demonstration about the tamperability of EVMs," the commission said, adding that he had made some suggestions for the panel to consider.
The panel said Satinath Chaudhury, a petitioner in the Supreme Court in 2004 on this issue, came to the commission's headquarters on Saturday. But after making some attempts, he failed to demonstrate that the EVM could be tampered with.
The panel also said that former bureaucrat Omesh Saigal, who was among those who had raised objections against it, refused to demonstrate the points he had raised.
It said others who had petitioned before the various other courts did not turn up.
"EVMs have served the country's elections well. These were introduced after long ranging political, technical and administrative consultations since 1979," the statement added.
It also said that these EVMs are not comparable with ones used abroad.
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