Never promised hackathon, only EVM challenge: EC tells AAP

Dismissing the Aam Aadmi Party's charge that the Election Commission was "running away" from organising a no-holds barred hackathon, the poll panel on Saturday said it never made any such promise.

The EC said it had clearly explained during the All Party Meeting on May 12 – which AAP also attended – that it will offer an "EVM Challenge and not a hackathon". "Hence, the statement that the Commission is backtracking from hackathon is absolutely baseless," it told AAP in a letter.

The EC also dismissed charges that it was not allowing "anyone to touch the EVM". "The challenge provides extensive opportunity to handle the EVMs and press as many buttons in any number of combinations and use any manner of bluetooth and wireless devices to attempt to tamper with the machines," the letter said.

In response to the letter, the AAP said the EC had "finally admitted that it never planned to throw open its machines for any scrutiny to begin with".

"Chief Election Commissioner had claimed that if an EVM's motherboard were to be tampered with, the machine would stop functioning. If this is the case, why doesn't it allow AAP to replace the motherboard in the hackathon," the party said in a statement.