CHENNAI - Continuing her tirade against electronic voting machines (EVMs), Leader of Opposition in Tamil Nadu and AIADMK general secretary J. Jayalalithaa said Wednesday that the voting machines can be hacked or manipulated.

Citing media reports about a Hyderabad based software engineer Hari Prasad who on behalf of a non governmental organisation (NGO) demonstrated how EVMs can be tampered with, Jayalalithaa said in a statement: “This should come as an eye-opener not only to the Election Commission of India and the judiciary but also to the voting public.”

She said the main problem is that in an electoral exercise, if tampering or hacking of EVMs is suspected, there are no means whatsoever to ascertain or prove before the authorities or the court that hacking has been done.

“It is equally impossible to prove that hacking has not been done. The reason for this is that the EVMs in use in our country do not generate a hard copy or a coded print-out. At the time of voting, unless the EVM simultaneously generates a physically verifiable hard copy, it would be impossible to ascertain the veracity of any complaints of tampering.”

According to her in a democracy, every voter should know whether the vote cast has gone to the candidate or party it was meant for.

“In the absence of such certainty, the entire democratic process will be rendered a mockery. It is to ensure that democracy, in its true sense, is brought back that the AIADMK decided to boycott by-elections to five assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu,” she added.

Five assembly constituencies in the state are scheduled to have byelections Aug 18.