Govt, ECP in another tiff over EVMs, e-voting

Govt gives timeline for buying machines and training staff, commission says it will follow its own schedule

ISLAMABAD:

The federal cabinet on Tuesday approved a timeline for awarding contracts for the purchase of electronic voting machines (EVMs) and training of staff while the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), instead of following the government’s directives, decided to move ahead with its own schedule.

During a meeting, the cabinet directed that the delivery of EVMs would start from June 15, 2022 and completed by June 15, 2023.

It also ordered the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) to upgrade the e-voting system in four months.

However, the ECP rejected the government’s timeline and said it would follow the recommendations of its own committees.

It added that the commission would provide the timeline for upgrading of e-voting system, the purchase of EVMs and training of staff itself.

In a briefing to the cabinet, Science and Technology Minister Shibli Faraz said a technical committee, headed by the ECP secretary, had been formed.

However, the minister raised concerns over the committee determining the possibility of using EVMs in the next general elections.

Shibli proposed a timeline under which the technical features would be completed by December 15 this year.

The cabinet was informed that the contract for the purchase of EVMs would awarded by April 1, 2022 so that the delivery of the machines could start from June 1, 2022. 

Read ECP to use EVMs in by-polls on experimental basis

The ECP had been directed to start the training of staff from December 1 this year and operational staff from June 15, 2022.

The arrangements for storage of machines would start from December 1 this year and the delivery of machines should be completed by June 15, 2023.

The cabinet members noted that the committee gauging the feasibility of using the EVMs and e-voting in the next general elections “at this point” was “unwarranted”.

The meeting was informed that under the amendments to the Election Act 2017, the ECP was bound to use the EVMs and e-voting system for Pakistanis living abroad.

The federal government would only be able to release funds to the ECP if elections were held under the new law.

The participants of the meeting called for the implementation of the timeline to make the forthcoming elections transparent.

The ECP had recently alleged that the ruling PTI was exacting pressure on the electoral body to squeeze out early and “hasty” floatation of tenders for the purchase of the machines.

It insisted that the task of purchasing the electronic machines merited sensitive handling and could not be subjected to the government’s coercion.

“The ECP is an independent institution and will carry out its duties within the constitutional framework and it has already formed three high-level committees for this purpose,” an official of the commission told The Express Tribune.

On November 23, the ECP had formed three committees to calculate the expenditure of electronic voting machines and amend the existing rules and regulations for using them in line with a law enacted by a joint sitting of parliament.