Election Commission of India refutes claims made by a 'cyber expert' that the 2014 elections were rigged

• The cyber expert claims his team knew the electronic voting machines were tampered with
  
• EC calls the claims a “motivated slugfest,” adding that it stands by the integrity of the voting machines
  
• The Election Commission is reportedly also considering legal action against the cyber expert

The Election Commission of India has strongly refuted claims made by a US cyber expert, Syed Suja, that the country’s last elections were rigged, calling it a “motivated slugfest.” It has said it stands by the “foolproof nature” of its EVMs.

"It needs to be reiterated that these EVMs are manufactured in Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) under very strict supervisory and security conditions and there are rigorous standard operating procedures (SOPs) meticulously observed at all stages under the supervision of a committee eminent technical experts constituted way back 2010," EC said in a statement.

On Monday, Suja alleged during an event held in London, that he knew that a private company was used to generate low frequency signals to hack the electronic voting machines used in the last elections, claiming he had helped design the voting machines. He further claimed that his team was able to intercept the transmissions in the recent assembly polls in India, as well as state elections in Delhi. It is unclear if Suja was a regular employee of ECIL as that claim is still unverified.

The Election Commission is reportedly also considering legal action against the expert, the Indian Express reported. The expert has said he has had to take political asylum in the US because of threats against his team.

Claims of EVM hacking have been made before, but by opposition parties following the Bharatiya Janata Party’s landslide win in the 2014 elections. In 2017, members of the Aam Aadmi Party held a “demonstration” to show how the machines could be hacked, a claim also rejected by the election commission at the time.

“The so-called demonstration of tampering of ‘look alike’ EVM cannot be exploited to influence intelligent citizens and electorate to assail or vilify the EVMs used by the commission in its electoral process,” EC said at the time.

With IANs inputs

See also:
India's elections are rigged, claims an American 'expert'