NEW DELHI, May 12 (Xinhua) -- India's independent Election Commission Friday challenged political parties across the country to hack into its electronic voting machines (EVMs) next week.
The Election Commission took the unique decision to hold a hackathon either this Sunday or Monday at an all-party meeting, attended by representatives of at least 55 political outfits in India, in the national capital.
The all-party meeting was called amid a massive political debate in India on whether EVMs can be rigged or not.
The Election Commission has asserted that EVMs cannot be manipulated, rejecting the allegations of anti-graft Aam Aadmi Party and several others, including regional Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), of widespread tampering of EVMs in the recent assembly elections in five states and Delhi civic polls.
Earlier this week, Aam Aadmi Party lawmaker Saurabh Bharadwaj "hacked" a gadget that he said was "similar to an EVM" in a demonstration in the Delhi Assembly to make the party's point that voting machines can be tampered in "under 90 seconds".
However, the Election Commission has dismissed his assertion, saying that the machine used by Bharadwaj was a "lookalike" of an EVM and therefore could not be used to demonstrate "any magic' or tampering.
India uses about 1.4 million EVMs in each general election to cover the vast country.
