EC rejects EVM hacking charge: ‘Standalone device, no OTP required’

The Election Commission (EC) on Sunday rejected allegations of hacking of the electronic voting machine (EVM) at the Lok Sabha seat in northwest Mumbai, saying that the EVM is a reliable, stand-alone device with no communication capabilities. At a press conference, returning officer Vandana Suryavanshi said that voting machines do not require an OTP to operate.

The clarification comes after a media report claimed that a relative of Shiv Sena candidate, who won the northwest Mumbai polls with a majority of 48 votes, had a phone with EVM unlocking facility.

“EVMs are standalone devices that do not have wired or wireless connectivity to units outside the EVM system,” Suryavanshi said, dismissing claims of using a mobile phone to unlock the device. “For EVMs, there is no need for OTP. Results are generated at the press of a button.”

The returning officer said the newspaper was spreading a “complete lie” “that some leaders are using to create a false narrative.”

On Saturday, the Mumbai Police filed an FIR against Mangesh Pandilkar, a relative of Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Waikar, and election official Dinesh Gurav. According to the FIR accessed by India Today, Dinesh Gurav, an election commission employee working as an encore operator, was allowed to use his mobile phone for data collation, through which an OTP was generated for data entry. Police said Mangesh Pandilkar used the same phone to make and receive calls.

This morning, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that EVMs in India are a “black box” that no one can investigate and asserted that there are “serious concerns” about the transparency of India’s electoral process. “Democracy becomes a sham and susceptible to fraud when institutions lack accountability,” he said.

In a tweet, Elon Musk said we should eliminate electronic voting machines as he suggested there was a risk of people or artificial intelligence hacking them.

The BJP’s Rajeev Chandrasekhar responded to Musk, saying it was a “huge, sweeping generalization that suggests no one can build secure digital hardware. Wrong”. “@elonmusek’s view may also apply to other places in the US where they use regular computing platforms to build internet-connected voting machines. However, Indian EVMs are custom-designed, secure and isolated from any network or media – no connectivity, no Bluetooth, no Wi-Fi, no Internet, i.e. no input there. Factory programmed controllers that cannot be reprogrammed.”