‘Hacking EVM is impossible’
TDS: Does the Election Commission have the capacity to use EVM in 300 seats during the next national election?
Brig Gen (retd) Ahsan Habib Khan: First and foremost, the chief election commissioner and we said on several occasions that the Election Commission was yet to make a final decision regarding the use of EVM in the next general election. Right now, we don't have the capacity to use EVM in all 300 parliamentary seats.
TDS: Can this system be hacked or manipulated?
Ahsan Habib: Based on the knowledge I have so far about the machine, I can assure you and I totally believe that it is impossible to hack or manipulate the machine. Hacking EVM is impossible as it has no internet connection.
Writer and technology expert Prof Muhammed Zafar Iqbal has seen each part and chip of EVM by opening a machine. It was embedded in such way that ICT experts said it is impossible to hack and manipulate it.
TDS: What benefits will be there if EVM is used instead of ballot papers?
Ahsan Habib: In the current political context, there is no alternative to using EVM for the sake of transparency [in an election]. Only challenge in using EVM in elections is interference by goons who forcibly press the EVM buttons for the voters.
In an EVM-based election, a voter will need to go to the polling station, give his fingerprint on the machine and press a button to cast vote. Someone may bar him from pressing the button.
But what happens in elections conducted using ballot papers is someone can loot ballot papers and cast even 1,000 fake votes.
We are introducing CCTV cameras in and outside polling stations during the Cumilla City Corporation polls and upazila elections on a pilot basis. We are in discussion to use CCTV cameras at least in risky polling stations during the next general election.
TDS: What will the EC do to earn trust of all political parties and people in EVM?
Ahsan Habib: The Election Commission has already held a views-exchange programme with technical experts regarding the EVM. We will sit with experts nominated by political parties to discuss the EVM issue.
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