“Come And Hack Our EVMs” — Election Commission Throws ‘Open Challenge’

Short Bytes: The Election Commission of India is reportedly throwing an open challenge to hack its electronic voting machines (EVMs). This step is being taken in the wake of recent allegations made by different political parties, which claimed that machines used in UP elections only voted for BJP. The opposition parties have also demanded that paper trail of voting should be re-introduced in the future.

The Indian politics scene is hot due to different kinds of allegations made by the opposition leaders after the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) won with an unexpectedly massive mandate in Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and former CM of Uttar Pradesh have staged protests against the alleged tampering of electronic voting machines (EVMs) for benefitting BJP in the elections.

The leaders have also demanded that the paper trail of voting should be re-introduced in the future elections. In the wake of these allegations, the Election Commission of India is planning an open challenge for security researchers, scientists, and political parties in the first week of May.

“From the first week of May, experts, scientists, technocrats can come for a week or 10 days and try to hack the machines,” an official source reportedly said.

The source also claims that the challenge will have various levels that one will need to complete within a week or 10 days.

This isn’t the first time Election Commission of India is staging such challenge. The Commission announced a similar program in 2009 and claimed that the machines turned out to be unhackable.

Previously, in response to the claims made by leaders, the Commission rejected the allegations.

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