Staff Report
ISLAMABAD:
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has demanded eight lakh Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) to introduce electronic voting system in the country.
According to sources, ECP has given requirement of 800,000 EVMs, with approximately Rs. 200,000 as price of an imported machine. And, in case of selection of locally manufactured machine, the price would be half of the imported one, and the same would result in savings of approximately Rs. 160 billion.
Sources said that Prime Minister Imran Khan was fretted over the delay in implementing the key electoral reforms of introducing EVMs and extending the right of vote to overseas Pakistanis which may eventually result in their inordinate deferment. They said that PM Khan has directed the Babar Awan, Advise to the Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs to give definite timelines and update him regularly on the progress on the issues of introducing EVMs and extending the right of vote to overseas Pakistanis, besides placing the draft Ordinance before Cabinet Committee for Disposal of Legislative Cases (CCLC) proposing amendments in Section 94 and 103 of the Elections Act 2017. They said the Adviser to the Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs while presenting weekly update to the federal cabinet on introducing EVMs and right to vote to overseas Pakistanis has informed that section 94 and section 103 of the Election (amendment) Bill was in Ministry of Law for vetting, which would be done within two days. Thereafter, the draft Ordinance would be placed before the Cabinet Committee for Disposal of Legislative Cases (CCLC) and the stand-alone machine had been selected, whose prototype has been prepared by National telecommunication & Radio Corporation (NRTC).
The sources that cabinet members were worried over the heavy cost of imported EVMs and expressed concerns over the security of the electronic voting system during a meeting of the federal cabinet.
It is pertinent to mention here that Ministry of Information Technology, on the advice of the PM, had earlier appointed a consultant for obtaining modern technology, its security, design and other affairs besides audit of NADRA system through a filter and voting through the internet. And, for this, the finance ministry had released Rs300 million in funds. Similarly, the consultant has started work on the design, security of EVMs. However, after solving the technical and legal issues related with electronic voting system, EVMs will be purchased in line with the report of consultant. Moreover, so far, several meetings of a sub-committee of the cabinet had been held under the president for voting through the internet facility, said sources.
