Delhi Chief Minister challenges Election Commission over tampering of electronic voting machines

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Monday reiterated his allegations of tampering of electronic voting machines (EVM) through sophisticated software to rig polls and challenged the country's independent Election Commission of proving it too.

"We urge the Election Commission to reveal the EVM software to the country. Give us an EVM and we will prove tampering," Kejriwal, also the chief of Delhi's ruling anti-graft Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), told the media.

The former civil sevrant-turned-politician's allegations came following reports that a test of an EVM in the central state of Madhya Pradesh appeared to show it printing out votes for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) regardless of what button was pressed.

The Election Commission has already transferred two top officials in the state over the apparent mistakes made by the EVM in Madhya Pradesh, where by-elections will be held for parliamentary seats, and said it was sending more officials from Delhi to oversee the vote.

In fact, the problem came to the fore in a video widely circulated on social media in India.

A spokesman for Election Commission said it had requested "a detailed report" from local officials and that two teams would visit there and stay until the final votes of the April 9 by-elections are counted.

The Election Commission had earlier dismissed allegations of EVM tampering made by Kejriwal, apart from some other political parties, post-assembly elections in the northern states of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the later two states being won by the BJP decisively.

source: Xinhua