ECIL rules out tampering of EVMs

Hyderabad: Engineers from Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) Hyderabad played a crucial role in the vote count of the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh election. ECIL, which manufactures electronic voting machines (EVMs), deployed a crew not just to count the votes but also to cross-check the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) with the votes cast.

ECIL experts said there was no question of EVMs being tampered with and said there was no manipulation in the counting process.

An official from ECIL said a crew of engineers from Hyderabad was sent to Gujarat during the voting process to ensure there are no technical glitches in the EVMs. A second batch of engineers was deployed to cross-check the VVPAT.

“Engineers at each counting centre cross-checked the VVPAT prints with the votes. It was a 100 per match. There is absolutely no scope of manipulation,” he said.

The VVPAT, a second line of verification in the voting process, was introduced in Lucknow and then in Goa.

In response to the allegation of Patidar community leader Hardik Patel that the BJP had won because of EVM tampering, Chief Election Commission chief A.K. Joti had said that there was no question of EVMs being tampered with.

“Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail machines or VVPATs were there in every polling station in Gujarat. The people were enabled to see whom they voted for. Also, there was a 100 per cent match in the random vote count on EVMs and paper trail slips carried out by the Election Commission in 182 Gujarat polling stations,” said Mr Joti.