Govt, opposition poles apart on EVM

Voting machine displayed in parliament house

The government on Monday displayed the much-talked about Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) in the National Assembly as the government and the opposition seemed poles apart regarding its effectiveness to check vote tampering.

President Dr Arif Alvi and Information Minister Fawad said the EVM was the “best tool” for ensuring transparency in the elections process.

Talking to media during his visit to the EVM machine displayed at the Parliament House, Federal Minister for Science and Technology Shibli Faraz said the use of the technology in electoral process would ensure “fair” and “credible” elections and put to rest all controversies surrounding election in our country.

PML-N Secretary Information Marriyum Aurangzeb on the other hand said her party has rejected the testing of the machine “behind the closed doors without any consultation with the opposition”.

The president said pointed out that without compromising the secrecy of voters, the EVM will also help ensure timely compilation of election results.

In an interview, the information minister said that all the work on technology has been completed and if there was consensus between the government and the opposition, then the next elections could be held on EVM.

He was of the view that a mechanism would have to be developed for transparency in the election process. “The EVM fulfils all the requirements of the Election Commission of Pakistan,” Fawad said.

Elaborating on the details of a new initiative, the minister said that the use of EVMs was one step ahead of the existing paper-based system and would reduce the chances of “manipulation in elections”.

He added that results would be available immediately – including an electronic trail and a paper trail.

“Our emphasis on electronic voting machines is because they are not connected to the internet”, the minister said.

Fawad said that voting usually ends at 5 o’clock in the evening and the people have to wait until the next morning to get the results, but the use of EVM would make election results available immediately.

Meanwhile, in a statement, Marriyum accused the government of “laying new grounds to steal the next general elections with the introduction of EVMs”. She said the introduction of e-voting was a “sleight of hand” way to steal the next ballots.

She said: “EVM was not introduced by this regime; it was introduced through the Election Act 2017 and they were tested as a pilot project in 2018 and there is a certain reservation and recommendatory report by the election commission.”

She said the PML-N has taken great exception to the government’s decision to proceed without holding consultation with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). “ECP officials were not consulted and engaged in any of the processes of  EVM despite the fact that the commission has expressed strong reservations in the past.”

Above all, it doesn’t have the parliamentary input, she added.

Casting aspersions on the government’s claims that e-voting would fix irregularities and prevent future political battles that mar every election, the PML-N questioned whether EVM can stop the election staff present during the polling from manipulating votes.

“Can they expedite the pending cases of electoral fraud and vote theft? Can the EVMs ensure that the results won’t be held up to engineer fake governments? Can the EVMs answer to the nation why RTS malfunctioned, why AJK results were delayed and ensure it won’t again?”