NCP, CPI (M), only parties to attend hackathon, satisfied with EVMs, says Election Commission

New Delhi: Political parties which participated in a hackathon have “expressed satisfaction” with the EVM machines, the Election Commission said on Saturday.

The Commission conducted the hackathon to prove its EVMs are 'unhackable'.

Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi told reporters that the CPM and the NCP were satisfied with the EVMs after the demonstration.

“NCP and CPM had informed they don't want to participate in any challenge but were only interested to participate in an academic exercise.

“Now they are satisfied with the outcome,” Zaidi said at a press conference.

“CPM team expressed complete satisfaction and suggested that commission should hold such demonstration and awareness sessions proactively.

“The NCP team mentioned that source of their doubt has been alleged problems with EVMs during municipal elections in Maharashtra,” Zaidi said.

He clarified that the EVMs used by the Maharashtra Election Commission for the urban local body polls do not belong to the Election Commission.

He said, "NCP team expressed willingness to opt out requesting ECI should evolve system which clearly distinguishes ECI EVMs from State EC EVMs."

The NCP and the CPI(M) were the only parties which participated in the event.

Both parties had nominated three representatives each for the EVM challenge which was held in two separate halls simultaneously.

The Commission used 14 EVMs from Punjab, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh for the challenge.