Key amendments

Political parties opposed to the use of electronic voting machines (EVM) appear to have their wish come true, as the National Assembly on Thursday passed a bill that would remove them from consideration for use in general elections. The assembly — bereft of an opposition to the coalition government, except for 22 PTI dissidents and 3 GDA members — also passed another bill that disallows overseas Pakistanis from voting. Both of these were highly desired by the PTI, which railroaded through bills to allow them while the party was in power. The move was unsurprising, considering that most pundits agree that PTI would be the biggest beneficiary of allowing overseas Pakistanis to vote. The government admitted as much, saying that the objective of the new legislation is to go back to the Elections Act 2017, before it was amended by the PTI government. But while legitimate debates can be held on the voting rights of overseas Pakistanis, EVMs were always a hard sell for the PTI, especially the way it was pushing for them to make a nationwide debut in the general elections.

The fact is that EVMs remain untested in actual elections in Pakistan and are actually falling out of favour around the world due to their susceptibility to outside interference and lack of paper trail. Even if their security can be guaranteed, a large portion of the population may struggle to use them. Even advanced countries with more educated populations regularly see older, less tech-savvy people making mistakes while voting. The US regularly sees ‘also ran’ and ‘joke’ candidates getting disproportionate numbers of votes in constituencies with significantly older populations. This is often because of simple mistakes by voters, such as pressing the wrong button or not knowing how to properly operate the software. These reasons are also why the Election Commission of Pakistan has consistently opposed EVMs even though they can be instrumental in terms of doing away with number of rejected votes which has exceeded the victory margin in a number of contests during previous elections. However, the government was quick to note that it was not opposed to EVMs, but wanted to ensure that they were reliable, which is why the amendments allow for their use in pilot projects during upcoming by-elections.

Meanwhile, the NAB law amendment brings several welcome changes to the operations of the accountability watchdog, including formalising the selection process for the bureau’s chairman and narrowing its mandate. If passed, the bill will remove NAB’s ability to investigate tax matters and regulatory decisions, while also requiring the bureau to have evidence on hand before arresting people, rather than the current ‘arrest first, investigate later’ approach during several investigations. NAB investigators also lose their ‘above-the-law’ status and face up to five-year imprisonment for filing references turning out to be false and up to a year in jail for making allegations against anyone before a reference has been filed. Cases must also be decided within one year, and the duration of remand has been reduced from 90 days to 14 days. Hopefully, these changes can help stop NAB from being used as a tool of political persecution.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, May 30^th, 2022.

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