ECP laments NADRA chief’s ‘tone’ on e-voting

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday reminded the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) that coming up with a new process for holding of polls was its domain only and lamented the tone adopted by the authority’s chairman in his letter to the body.

NADRA Chairman Tariq Malik had recently written a letter to the electoral body, asking it to step up the pace on the proposed e-voting system.

In response, the commission said it was disappointed with the tone of the NADRA chairman.

“His tone gives the impression that the ECP operates under the NADRA,” it wrote.

The commission further noted that NADRA wanted a new agreement of Rs2.4 billion for e-voting with the ECP.

“NADRA should first explain why it abandoned the previous e-voting scheme on which Rs66.5 million had already been spent.”

According to the commission, had anybody been held responsible for the flaws, if any, in the existing system?

When contacted, NADRA officials disclosed that the ECP had earlier developed and planned to use the e-voting system on a pilot basis in four by-elections in 2018.

However, they added that the ECP had decided to use it only in two by-elections.

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During that exercise, the officials maintained, the role of NADRA was to provide technical support to the ECP, whereas using the e-voting system was at the sole discretion of the commission.

The officials claimed that an e-voting system was already in place and currently in the custody of the ECP. They added that as per the contractual obligations, the ECP was supposed to release the outstanding dues of Rs28.5 million to NADRA.

The officials said in a bid to ensure accountability and transparency, the NADRA chairman had proposed a strategy and plan for a new e-voting system as per guidelines laid down by the federal government, the president, the ECP, the parliamentary committee, international auditors and other stakeholders.

Through the new proposed system, the authority would assist the ECP in developing its independent infrastructure, data centre with dedicated servers, non-NADRA dependent network, third party software and human resource capacity building.

The commission, the officials said, would be independent of conducting e-voting for overseas Pakistanis. NADRA’s servers and computers will not be used in this system.

NADRA officials have urged the ECP to progress positively on the proposed system with a view to meeting the project plan timelines as per the expectations of all stakeholders.