May 25, 2009 EVM Fraud Home Page
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Omesh Saigal Insist EVM Fraud Possible using Trojan Sofware
After the Election Commission rejected his claim that Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) are not tamper-proof, former bureaucrat Omesh Saigal insisted on his allegation that a particular software can be used to rig the polls. Rejecting the allegation that he was sensationalizing the issue, Saigal, former Delhi Chief Secretary, said in a letter to Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi that he had made an oral presentation before Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla who had assured a complete examination by the EC and by the scientific advisory committee headed by Prof Indiresan. Saigal claimed the CEC also assured him that, if required, adequate safeguards would be introduced and, if that too did not suffice, EC would not hesitate to go back to the ballot papers.
"Please don’t think that we are the only ones to express the fears of electoral fraud through a dogla software (Trojan-horse). Both the technical committees set up by the EC, one in April 1990 and the other in Sept 2006, had articulated similar fears. These committees were headed by Prof Indiresan," Saigal said. He said he could give a detailed presentation to the EC to show how a ‘dogla’ software can be used to rig an election. The EC had said yesterday that it would consider all the points raised and apprehensions expressed by various political leaders, and individuals regarding EVMs and take all necessary measures to clear doubts.
Saigal said the experts' committee had examined the possibility of a "trojan horse sub programme" being wilfully activated after knowing the key number allocation to favour a particular candidate by activating the software through some mechanism at the time of poll. The committee had prescribed a large number of pre and post-poll election checks in its reports as part of the audit, Saigal said in his letter. "....Please ensure that no key audit functions are given to persons ware not directly accountable and reporting to EC," he added. BJP, CPI(M), Samajwadi Party and Trinamool Congress have said the doubts raised about the possibility of rigging through EVMs should be examined carefully.
Ramvilas Paswan Blames Electronic Voting Machine for the Electoral Defeat
The Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) leader Ram Vilas Paswan who was confused about his historic defeat from a constitutency that he used to win with several lakhs majority has joined the opposition leder LK Advani in questioning the credibility of electronic voting machines (EVMs). On Sunday, he told media persons: "'if the electronic device to count the votes of 543 members in the Lok Sabha cannot be trusted, how can you trust the electronic voting machines for a voting process involving millions of electorate all over the country?"
The former union minister who used to win the Hajipur seat in Bihar with record margins, had lost in elections to the 15th Lok Sabha. Blaming the EVM as a tool for 'administrative abuse of power' to manipulate poll results, the LJP's June 14 resolution had expressed concern over 'manipulation and misuse' of EVMs in the last election, with Paswan demanding the reintroduction of ballot papers. The Dalit leader said his party had encountered complaints against EVMs, ranging from their malfunctioning to their manipulation by the state government and presiding officers. He alleged that in some cases, officials cast the votes while demonstrating the use of these machines to gullible villagers. Paswan reiterated his doubts about EVMs a day after Advani sought the reintroduction of the good old ballot paper.
Electronic Voting Machines are Tamper Proof: Claims Navin Chawla
Commission will check all points raised about EVMs
New Delhi: June 6, 2009 The Election Commission of India has issued a press note about Electronic Voting Machines. Keralamonitor.com send him a letter on asking his opinion on the vulnerability of EVMs to manipulation, to which he has not replied so far. The CEC Statement said: “The Election Commission of India has come across news items in a section of the Press regarding the technological vulnerability of the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) for possible manipulation. These news items refer to a letter handed over to the Commission by Omesh Saigal, a retired civil servant. In this regard, the Commission would like to clarify that Saigal handed over a letter on this matter, when he met the Chief Election Commissioner on 30th of June 2009. However, no demonstration on the tamperability of the EVM has been given by Saigal to the Commission or to its officials, nor has the Commission ordered any enquiry, as reported in a section of the Press.
The Commission receives complaints, petitions and letters from various quarters on electoral issues including the matters related to EVM. All these complaints are looked into for taking necessary action, if any is required. The Commission has also been receiving letters from time to time, from various individuals and other stake holders about the possibility of EVM being tampered. In some of the cases, analogy is drawn to electronic voting systems adopted in various foreign countries and their experience with the electronic voting. The Commission has in the past, provided opportunities to the complainants to prove their points on the alleged vulnerability of EVM. So far, no one has been able to demonstrate to the Commission that EVM can be manipulated. The efficacy of EVM was also questioned in court cases in the past and the decisions of the courts [the Hon’ble Madras High Court, Karnataka High Court, Bombay High Court (Nagpur Bench), and the Kerala High Court, and as upheld by the Hon’ble Supreme Court] in these cases have confirmed the reliability of EVM.
From the initial introduction in 1982, to the country- wide use of EVM in 2004, the country took long and measured steps spanning over a period of nearly two decades, in the matter of electronic voting. In the meanwhile, general elections to various legislative assemblies, and numerous bye-elections and two general elections to the Lok Sabha have been conducted using EVMs at all polling stations. The tamper-proof technological soundness of the EVM has been endorsed by a technical experts subcommittee appointed at the initiative of the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms in 1990. This experts committee was headed by Prof S.Sampath, then Chairman RAC, Defence Research and Development Organisation, with Prof P.V.Indiresan,then with IIT, Delhi, and Dr C.Rao Kasarabada, then Director Electronic Research and Development Center, Trivandrum as members. Subsequently, the Commission has also been consulting a group of technical experts comprising Prof P.V. Indiresan (who was also part of the earlier committee referred to above) and Prof D.T. Sahani and Prof A.K Agarwala both of IIT Delhi, regularly, on all EVM related technical issues. Besides, the Commission has in place elaborate administrative measures and procedural checks-and –balances aimed at total transparency and prevention of any possible misuse or procedural lapses.
These measures include rigorous pre-election checking of each EVM by the technicians, two level randomization with the involvement of political parties, candidates, their agents, for the random allotment of the EVMs to various constituencies and subsequently to various polling stations, preparation of the EVMs for elections in the presence of the candidates/their agents, and the Election Observers, provision for various thread seal and paper seal protection against any unauthorized access to the EVMs after preparation, mock poll in the presence of polling agents and mock poll certification system before the commencement of poll, post poll sealing and strong room protection, randomization of counting staff, micro observers at the counting tables, and so on. (Omesh Sigal left)
The Election Commission of India is amply satisfied about the non-tamperability and the fool-proof working of the EVMs. The Commission’s confidence in the efficacy of the EVMs has been fortified by the judgments of various courts and the views of technical experts. The honorable Karnataka High Court has hailed the EVM as ‘a national pride’ (judgment dated 5.2.2004 in Michael B. Fernandes Vs C.K.Jaffer Sharief and others in E.P No 29 of 1999)
The Commission will however consider all the points raised and apprehensions expressed recently by various political leaders and individuals regarding EVM and take all necessary measures to clear doubts about EVM elections in the country.”
Copy of Keralamonitor.com letter to the Chief Election Commissioner Navil Chawla to his personal email id: navinchawla@eci.gov.in <navinchawla@eci.gov.in> on May 29, 2009.
From
Indian Citizen and Editor
keralamonitor.com
Kerala
To
Mr Navin Chawla,
The Hourable Election Commission of India
Dear Sir,
Subject --information regarding electronic voting machines.
As a proud Indian citizen, my hearty congratulations for successfully conducting a major election in our country. Keep up all the good work that the Election Commission is doing for conducting free and fair elections.
As reported in the media, there are some apprehensions about the use of electronic voting machines. Can you clarify the Election Commission's position on the following questions :
The BJP has asked for a return to ballot voting as it feels the electronic voting machines are not fool proof. Do you agree?
It was noticed in some polling stations in Kerala, voting machines were showing strange behaviour --votes polled for one candidate going to rival candidates? Have you conducted any investigation about such incidents and the reasons for such flaws in the EVMs?
In Europe and USA there are strong objections to the use of EVMs. Recently, many European countries have abandoned use of electronic voting because the voter cannot physically verify the votes. Your comments.
Your comments on the concerns raised in the following report.
http://www.keralamonitor.com/electronicvoting.html
with warm regards
Editor, keralamonitor.comRediff.com Report Doubts Whether Election 2009 was Rigged?
The Election Commission has now officially taken up the investigation of charges of rigging and fraud through the Electronic Voting Machines. This report from rediff.com says the Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla [ Images ] is sitting over a major scandal of a possible massive rigging of elections by manipulation of software of the Electronic Voting Machines. More
"But for the charge levelled by a former Delhi [ Images ] chief secretary five years senior to him in the Indian Administrative Service cadre, Chawla would have rejected such claims of rigging," rediff.com said.Omesh Saigal, a 1964 batch IAS officer of the Union Territory, stunned him with a presentation to force him to order an inquiry into any possibility of such a rigging.
Chawla is himself a Union Territory cadre IAS of 1969 batch, it reported.Deputy Election Commissioner Balakrishnan has been asked to conduct the inquiry on the basis of a report handed over by Saigal to the CEC, with a software he got developed to show how the elections can be rigged, the news portal reported.Saigal, who is an Indian Institute of Technology alumni, has demanded an urgent check of the programme that runs the EVMs used in elections since 2004.
"He demonstrated with his software that its manipulation ensured that one has to just key in a certain code number and that will ensure every fifth vote cast in a particular polling booth goes in favour of a certain candidate," said rediff.com.
"In his letter to the CEC, Saigal alleged that the software written onto the EVMs has never been checked by the Election Commission ever since these machines were manufactured than 6-7 years back," the report said. "His contention is that the EC merely relied on the certificates supplied by the manufacturers, the government-run BEL and ECIL. He alleged that these government firms had subcontracted private parties who actually provided these certificates.
"A public software audit of these machines from time to time, especially after and before an election, was a must to retain the credibility of the elections," Saigal affirmed, demanding that for the sake of transparency names and ownerships of these private companies must be disclosed, as also the details of the factories where they were actually manufactured. The records retained in the factories must also be immediately taken over by the EC to prevent any tampering and to facilitate an audit, he said.
He also pointed out how, after nearly two years of deliberation, Germany's [ Images ] Supreme Court ruled last March that e-voting was unconstitutional because the average citizen could not be expected to understand the exact steps involved in the recording and tallying of votes. Earlier, Ireland had given up e-voting for similar reasons.
In the United States too, after considerable controversy the Federal Election Commission has come up in 2005 with detailed voting system guidelines which run into more than 400 pages. Saigal said that it is noteworthy that not a single safeguard mentioned in these guidelines are in place in India.Saigal said he had gone into all the safeguards built into the e-voting system in India with the help of former colleagues and IT experts and finds it both 'possible and plausible' to rig these machines and get a crooked result. "If the credibility of the electoral process is to be ensured, pre- and post-election checks of the software now fused onto the chips of the EVMs is a must," Saigal said.It is not that all the 10 lakh odd machines used in the poll need to be checked. If we take only those booths where one of the candidates has received 75 per cent of the votes and in constituencies where the margin of the winner is less than 15,000, not more than 7,000-odd machines will need to be checked.Saigal argued in his report that "if we cannot do this we must revert to the paper ballot." "The need for a fair, free and transparent polling system transcends any reasons anyone may have to the contrary," the rediff.com report said.
