New Delhi, August 2: India’s Election Commission said on Thursday that Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) used in the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly election are “tamper-proof,” following a successful Checking and Verification (C&V) exercise requested by candidates from 10 assembly constituencies.
The process was initiated after several losing candidates — mostly from the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance — raised concerns over alleged mismatches between EVM data and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips. The verification was conducted by the Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer under directions issued by the ECI on June 17.
In total, 48 ballot units, 31 control units, and 31 VVPATs were tested. The diagnostic process included verification of burnt memory and microcontrollers in EVMs used in constituencies across Thane, Pune, Beed, Yavatmal, Nashik, Kolhapur, and Raigad districts.
“All machines passed the diagnostic tests, and there was no mismatch in the VVPAT slip counts,” the Commission said in a statement. “This exercise proves, yet again, that the EVMs are tamper-proof.”
The C&V was conducted in the presence of eight of the ten applicants and other representatives. Engineers from Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL), which manufactures the EVMs, oversaw the technical checks and mock polls. The ECI confirmed that mock poll results from the Control Units matched the VVPAT slip counts in every case.
The ECI’s declaration comes amid growing political debate over the credibility of India’s electronic voting system. Opposition parties have increasingly questioned the transparency of EVMs in recent elections, though the Commission maintains that the machines are secure and reliable.
