mohammad naushad khan analyses the apprehensions about the much talked about EVM tampering and on the bases of expert opinions conclude that it is high time to ponder over either to go back to the paper ballot or to continue with EVMs along with paper trail to ensure poll transparency.
The free, fair and transparent election is the hallmark of a mature, functioning democracy. After every election, the issue of EVM tampering is discussed and debated in India and across the world. But in India nothing concrete has been done to ensure free and fair polls or to win back the faith and confidence of the people in our electoral process despite the Supreme Court of India order to the Election Commission to use VVPATs along with EVMs by 2019.
In India, apprehensions about EVMs were highlighted during the 2009 election following a blunder found on the Election Commission of India (ECI) website. Dr Anupam Saraph, the then Chief Information Officer of Pune, and Prof. M.D. Nalapat, Vice-Chair of the Manipal Advanced Research Group, came to witness files on the ECI website which showed election results days before votes were cast and counting was yet to take place. The irregularity and tampering has been reported in India as well as from various other parts of the world. In 2000 elections, the problems with EVM security became widely known during largescale irregularities in Florida. Germany has declared EVMs unconstitutional.
When EVMs were introduced in India in 1981, it was anticipated to bring speed and accuracy in counting ballots and the impression gathered at that point of time was that it may not be manipulated. The system adopted was considered an advanced concept in the electoral process. But over the years, the corrupt mindset discovered the fault lines through which the EVM could be easily tampered with for or against a political party or its candidates. The Election Commission tried out VVPAT machines in 8 Lok Sabha constituencies in 2014. This happened after the Delhi High Court ruled in 2012 that EVMs in the present form “are not tamper-proof”. On 18 May, Julian Siddle, Science reporter, BBC News reported Scientists at a US university say they have developed a technique to hack into Indian electronic voting machines. After connecting a home-made device to a machine, University of Michigan researchers were able to change results by sending text messages from a mobile. Indian election officials say their machines are fool-proof, and that it would be very difficult even to get hold of a machine to tamper with it.
Even after the recent assembly elections result the issue of EVM tampering has been raised by BSP chief Mayawati, former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Akhilesh Yadav, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Lalu Prasad Yadav and many more. We have also seen people protesting the issue of misuse of EVMs at various places. The issue of EVM tampering has been raised by the Congress and the BJP but these parties only complain when they are not in power and chose to remain silent when in power. Five years ago, BJP spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao made a case against EVMs in a book, ‘Democracy At Risk! Can We Trust Our Electronic Voting Machines?’ with foreword by LK Advani.
Presently, most developed countries do not use EVMs. The USA uses paper and electronic ballot whereas the UK and Germany now use paper instead of electronic devices. There are many more countries to have reverted to the paper ballot after discovering fault in EVMs and its susceptibility to be misused and tampered with. Steve Stigall, a CIA cybersecurity expert, said in 2009 that elections could be manipulated after the votes were cast, when ballots were moved to other locations, when results are finally tabulated and also when results are declared on the internet.
In 2012, the High Court of Delhi, in its ruling on a Writ Petition filed by Dr Subramanian Swamy challenging the use of EVMs in the present form, said that EVMs are not tamper-proof and ordered the Election Commission to add a paper trail to check against any electoral fraud. In 2013, a bench of Chief Justice P Sathasivam and Justice Ranjan Gogoi of the Supreme Court, said the Vote Verifier Paper Audit Trail system with EVMs would ensure free and fair polls and help in resolving disputes. The court had also asked the Centre to provide financial assistance for it.
Prof. M.D. Nalapat, Editorial Director of The Sunday Guardian and Honorary Director & UNESCO Peace Chair, Dept. of Geopolitics & IR; Vice-Chair of MARG, Manipal University, while speaking to Radiance said:
“The fact of the matter is that Congress and Samajwadi Party and all other parties had ample opportunities when they were in the power to do something about it but they did nothing. I and Anupam Saraph who is an expert on this were the first to raise the issue of EVM fraud. Congress Party completely avoided it and denied it in those days. So frankly they did nothing about it and that is the main point.
“In this election, what I believe that division of Muslims votes and consolidation of Hindu votes helped the BJP like in Assam. The Muslims were divided and the Hindus were united. In other words, Subramanian Swami strategy of divided Muslims and united Hindus worked in Assam and in UP although it failed in Bihar.”
Nalapat further said, definitely we need Vote Verifier Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) and the sooner it is done the better it is to ensure free and fair polls. One cannot search for excuses and escape but have to face their own mistake and cannot put stakes on machines instead of doing introspection. There are so many wrong policies they themselves have done. Overall the Muslim community has not benefited at all from them, only small elite got benefited.
Dr. Anupam Saraph, an expert on this subject who has been an advisor in governance, national and international organisations including UNESCO, while talking to Radiance said, “Yes, absolutely, any electronic machine can be hacked just like mobile phone and computers can be hacked. You must have seen the recent Wikileaks release of ‘Vault 7’ which indicated that CIA was having the malicious tool to even hack smart TV and turn on the camera and microphone remotely. So, in the same way, it is possible to hack any electronic equipment.”
Sarapah added: especially when stakes are high, to create a tool or malicious code in order to hack any electronic equipment is extremely possible. There are many ways that exist which can be used to hack any equipment. You might have also followed into October and November when our ATMs were hacked and about 3.2 million people were affected. So if you create vulnerable code and create a mechanism whereby you can intrude into device then obviously it can be hacked.
On the possible solution, he suggested some measures like: First: there should be a receipt because the trust factor in your vote going to your candidate can be reinforced if you are able to get a receipt. It would say actually where the vote has gone. Or, if you can have a passbook where you should be able to verify it with the vote bank once down the line that our vote really stood there and was counted. There is no mechanism right now. In the name of secrecy, we are not allowed to see our own votes at another time. What is the secrecy? Secrecy is something only you know and nobody is involved. Privacy is when you know and the third parties with whom you have an agreement are able to see and know. In the case of banking transaction, we have a privacy agreement with the bank and the bank knows how much money you have and you know about it. The third party typically expected not to know. Now a vote bank is very similar to a regular money bank. So if a vote bank is created where you can deposit your vote to a candidate and you are able to see it stands there and has not been stolen then it is one way to reinforce confidence.
Secondly: thing is that transaction has to be auditable. So any banking transaction is trusted because you know that a third party can audit it and if mistakes are found they can roll back and book the culprit. Now in the case of electronic voting machines, there is no way to track and find the culprit. It is not an auditable transaction and there is no audit trail.
Thirdly: what is required is to have multiple channels to cast the vote to say that there is an EVM; you go to the booth, your name has to be on the electoral list, there will be observers from each candidate of each party, various bureaucrats are deputed as observers. We are drawing away the attention from the real issue whether my vote got counted or not. Nobody is able to pay attention to that because we are busy looking at who is the observer and what is he doing and not doing. The paraphernalia is so large and that is a play like a magician’s where the magician draws our attention away from the actual thing he is doing. So I think there has to be greater transparency in elections and currently that does not exist.
S.Q.R Ilyas, president of the Welfare Party of India, told Radiance that all electronic machines or equipment can be manipulated. It should also be seen how far the manufacturing companies are reliable. Most of the advanced countries have abandoned it. In India, all parties including BJP have opposed it and therefore Election Commission should address the issue and merely saying that we have examined it and there are no problems is simply not enough. The Election Commission should address this issue immediately because the concern has been raised by all political parties time and again.
Now it is beyond doubt that EVMs can be tampered with and it can be done at will in any election and during any regime. Therefore, it is high time to ponder over either to go back to the paper ballot or to continue with EVMs along with paper trail so that the voter gets to know whom he has voted for.