May 20, 2017 4:47 PM

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EC is implementing latest technologies for conducting elections : Nasim Zaidi

Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi today said the Election Commission believes in total transparency and it has nothing to hide from people. <br/><br/>Addressing media after holding a live demo of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and VVPATs in New Delhi today, Mr Zaidi said, the EC will throw a challenge to political parties to tamper the voting machines in the recently concluded Assembly elections. <br/><br/><br/>Saying that there is no chance of hacking of voting machines, Mr Zaidi said tampering of voting machines is not possible by external devices such as Bluetooth. He added that security measures by the Commission are foolproof and it is next to impossible to access the EVMs. He ruled out re-programming saying these are OTP chips. <br/><br/><br/>The Chief Election Commissioner also ruled out code tampering by the chip manufacturer as it will get caught during code integrity check. He said any modified EVM would not be usable even if someone is able to hypothetically bypass security arrangements and modify EVM. He said no radio frequency transmission or reception or wireless communication is possible. <br/>Mr Zaidi said EVMs are stored in a strong room in the presence of political parties. <br/><br/><br/>These EVMs are escorted back to the strong room post poll and stored under 24 X 7 security. He also said Election Commission has been at the forefront in implementing latest technologies for smoothly conduction elections. EVMs have been used in all elections in 3 Lok Sabha and 107 state assemblies since 2000. He said, Election Commission has set ever-higher standards of efficient, smooth and professional conduct of Elections. <br/>'<br/>Last week, the poll body had said that it will give a chance to political parties to prove EVMs used in the recent assembly polls were tampered-with, after several opposition parties questioned their reliability and demanded going back to the paper ballot system. <br/><br/><br/>The Commission also held an all party meeting to discuss the issues relating to the reliability of the EVMs and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPATs) and electoral reforms.

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