Electronic voting machines (EVMs) are not just creating a stir in India, but kicking up a controversy in faraway Botswana, too.
After news portals reported Indian EVMs would be tested at a hackathon in the southern African country, Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) — makers of the EVMs — said there were no such plans. It denied reports that its EVMs would figure in a hackathon organised by the Independent Election Commission of Botswana, a government body.
The portals reported that BEL had been invited to the hackathon to demonstrate how the EVMs worked. The reports prompted BEL to issue a statement saying it had not sold any EVMs or paper trail machines to Botswana’s Election Commission.
According to a report published in www.itwebafrica.com, Botswana’s President Ian Khama had last year signed the Electoral Amendment Bill, 2016, a revision of the existing Electoral Act, paving the way for the introduction of EVMs.
The portal said the Botswana government believed this technology would improve several election-related processes such as registration of voters, preparation of rolls and deleting provisions for supplementary rolls. Opposition parties, however, were concerned about the development and claimed EVMs were open to security breaches, it said.
