28 May, 2017
The commission also rejected the AAP claim about the ECI promise of no-holds barred hackathon.
A day after dropping out of the Election Commission's EVM challenge, AAP's Greater Kailash Assembly legislator Saurabh Bhardwaj did a Facebook live from Botswana, the South African country that had invited hackers to crack the electronic voting machines, or EVMs, earlier this month.
On demands for permission to take the EVMs for tampering or allow changing of internal circuit, the commission said: "This is like saying that they should be permitted to manufacture a new machine and introduce their new EVMs in our system".
In separate letters to both parties that are not taking part in the challenge, the poll panel has stressed that it made no promise to hold a no-hold barred exercise. However, the BJP, CPI and the Rashtriya Lok Dal have shown interest in observing the challenge.
"We received the RJD's email at 5:39 pm (applications were to be received by 5 pm)".
The AAP has been the biggest critic of the EVM, insisting that it can be hacked.
The EC said that the NCP have not chosen any EVMs as per the framework and has left it to the polling commission.
"EC will bring EVMs from Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand for challenge", EC said.
Botswana Congress party is said to be the largest opposition party of Botswana and they have complained to their highest court regarding tampering of voting machine.
The EC said that only those parties, national and regional, that took part in the recently concluded assembly elections can hack the EVMs.
The poll panel said that the EVMs need to be picked from its warehouses in Delhi at parties' own cost. The EVMs involved in the election petition or those sealed will not be allowed in the hackathon.
"The Commission has specified that the EVM Challenge would be conducted within the framework of the existing administrative safeguards and security protocols which are strictly followed in the field in the ground level situation while EVM are deployed", it said in its reply to Congress leader Randeep Surjewala who had on Friday had sought relaxation in terms and conditions attached to the poll panel's EVM challenge from June 3.
