Not much was expected from the Election Commission’s (EC) EVM hackathon, and not much did come out of it at the EC office on June 3. With only two political parties, the Congress and the CPI(M) agreeing to take part, the entire exercise was a damp squib.

While the EC will definitely be tom-tomming this as a victory for its “technology” it has to be remembered that the two parties had to be content with a demo of the machine, given by EC engineers, who also showed the efficacy of VVPATs. Fourteen of them were on show, with only four of them allowed to be “looked into” (the circuitry) for four hours. If the machines stopped through internal checks, the EC won.

Meanwhile, the AAP is starting with its own challenge.

—India Legal Bureau