The Election Commission of India on Thursday said an all-party meeting will be held on May 12 to discuss the controversy surrounding the alleged tampering of Electronic Voting Machines. On April 29, Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi had said a meeting of all political parties would be organised to address any doubts that persisted.

At the meeting, the Election Commission will explain how the voting machines are tamper-proof and “secured under administrative and technical safeguards”, Zaidi had said. After the meeting, the polling monitor will hold a “hackathon” in May end to “dispel all doubts” that the voting machines can be manipulated, NDTV reported. The EC had announced the “open challenge” on April 12, inviting anyone wanting to try and test the security of EVMs to participate.

The controversy over EVM manipulation began after the results of the Assembly elections in five states were declared in March. While the EC has maintained that the voting machines are tamper-proof, Opposition parties have made repeated calls for the polling monitor to switch back to using the paper ballot system. On April 11, as many as 16 Opposition parties had written to the polling monitor alleging that the tampering of EVMs had created a “deep-seated trust deficit” on their reliability.