Bharat distances itself from EVM hackathon
Innocent Selatlhwa | Thursday May 18, 2017 10:22
BEL states that the reports are completely baseless and false. “No Hackathon event involving any EVM of BEL has been planned or scheduled by it. Therefore press note issued by Botswana Election Commission is without our approval or consent and facts stated therein are completely false and incorrect,” read a statement from the chairperson and managing director of BEL, one M V Gowtama, who categorically stated that the company has not sold any EVMs or VVPATs to the IEC.
“Botswana Election Commission has invited a team of BEL (experts) to show only the functionality of the EVM with the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) designed to meet the specific requirements of Botswana Government. These EVMs and VVPATs are different from the ones which are used by Election Commission of India,” Gowtama said.
Electronic Voting System (EVS) coordinator, Gabriel Seeletso said they were not aware of any BEL concerns.
“I have not seen the statement, neither have they communicated any displeasures to us. They should not worry that anyone would be given the machine to modify or anything,” he said.
Seeletso said they have registered a number of hackers who would take part in the hackathon who will attempt to hack the machines at the venue without taking it away. He said the exercise would help determine if the EVM could be hacked.
IEC recently announced that they would, together with a team of experts from Bharat Electronics Limited of India conduct a demonstration session on May 18, 2017 on how the EVM with the VVPAT works.
In the invitation, IEC stated that the session that would be attended by various stakeholders and would offer an opportunity for those with the know-how to disrupt, hack and compromise the secure performance of the machines to do so.
The IEC further stated that those with technical capability to hack the EVM were invited to come forward and register with the Project Coordinating Unit by end of business on May 15.
Opposition parties have rejected the introduction of the machines citing worldwide allegations of security breaches of the EVM. The Botswana Congress Party has since filed papers with Courts opposing the use of the machine. This led to the purchase being halted and the opposition parties have since said they would not attend, as the matter is before Court.
The EVMs have come under a lot of criticism in India after being used in the 2009 elections. There were claims of compromise, and recently tampering allegations by Indian political parties after assembly elections in March.
United States researchers also said in 2010 that they were able to change election results on the device by sending text messages from a mobile phone.