AAP explores EVM answers in Botswana

New Delhi: A day after dropping out of the Election Commission’s EVM challenge, AAP’s Greater Kailash Assembly legislator Saurabh Bhardwaj did a Facebook live from Botswana, the South African country that had invited hackers to crack the electronic voting machines, or EVMs, earlier this month.

The AAP legislator had held a demonstration last month in the Delhi Assembly to prove that the voting machines could be tampered with. To prove his point, he had changed the motherboard that controlled the device.

But the EC, which has announced an EVM Challenge on June 3 to address concerns among political parties about the voting machines, made it clear that it would not allow challengers to make any changes to the machine’s hardware.

AAP, along with Congress, has decided to skip the event, insisting that the ground rules were far too restrictive.

On Saturday, Mr Bharadwaj did a live Facebook session on the “truth” about the hackathon in Botswana.

Botswana, a country twice the size of Uttar Pradesh and with a population of about 2.3 million — about one-tenth of Delhi’s population — is struggling to implement a decision to introduce “Made in India” electronic voting machines for its 2019 general elections.

The ruling Botswana Democratic Party has never lost power since the African country gained independence in 1966. Sensing that they could oust the ruling party in the next election, Botswana’s four Opposition parties have joined hands and are deeply suspicious about the voting machines. It was in this context that Botswana’s election commission had agreed to a hackathon.

Bharat Electronics is reported to have pulled out from the event after AAP pointed out how Made in India EVM were allowed to be hacked in Botswana but not in India.