The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has made it clear that the use ofElectronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and i-Voting are not possible in thegeneral election if held in October this year.
According to media reports, the ECP, despite amendments to the ElectionsAct, 2017, which were adopted in the joint session of the parliament inNovember last year, is not ready to adopt the technology due to variousreasons.
One of the core reasons is the shortage of time to complete thetime-consuming selection process of the technology.
“The EVMs require repeated pilot projects, trials, and tests before beingadopted. The process, even if expedited, can at least take four to fivemonths,” an ECP official privy to the matter said.
He added that procurement of the machines through internal/internationaltendering may take up to six months as these technological gadgets are notavailable in bulk, i.e., 700,000-800,000, as required by the ECP, nor theycould be procured straight away from the global markets.
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Once the procurement process is done, the next step is to gain theconfidence of the public, political parties, and other stakeholders in thetechnology shift. This would be challenging as a larger electorate falls inthe rural areas.
“More than half of Pakistan’s over 220 million population is eligible forvoting and switching to the new technology would not be easy,” he said,warning that Pakistan could not afford controversy in elections.
