ECP discusses EVMs, voting rights to expats

ISLAMABAD: Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja Thursday said the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) appreciates the use of technology in the election process, but the quality of security must be taken into account and extreme caution was required to ensuring transparency, fairness and impartiality in elections.

He was presiding over an ECP meeting on giving the overseas Pakistanis right to vote, and the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) here at the ECP Secretariat. ECP members, secretary and senior officers attended the meeting.

The meeting reviewed an ordinance issued on May 8, 2021 regarding voting right to overseas Pakistanis and the use of EVMs in the general election.

The government placed an electronic voting machine at the Parliament House a day earlier and the media was given briefing on its use.

The ECP said that in order to give the vote right to overseas Pakistanis, the Election Commission had carried out pilot projects, and a report in that regard had been submitted to the federal government in December 2018. The government had asked the Ministry of Information Technology to conduct an audit. which assigned the task to a Spanish firm (Minsait), which was supposed to submit the audit report till May 31, 2021.

The meeting asked for writing to the Ministry of IT to share the audit report with the Commission so that further work could be carried out in that regard. A committee has been constituted under the chairmanship of the ECP secretary, which will include all officers concerned, who will collect all the work done so far in that regard and give a briefing in the next meeting of the Commission with their recommendations.

Media reports and the Thursday’s meeting in the Presidency said that the ECP report on the internet voting right to overseas Pakistanis had been submitted to the federal government. It decided to debate it in the cabinet and the parliament. The outcome of the debate would be communicated to the Commission so that it could use it.

The commission desired that the Ministry of Science and Technology should develop the electronic voting machine by May 31, 2021. The ECP said that a letter should be written to the Ministry of Science and Technology to give a demonstration to the Commission after May 31, 2021.

Regarding the pilot project report, submitted by the ECP to the federal government on electronic voting machine, which was re-sent in December 2017 and April 2020, it has been learnt that the government was going to present reports in the cabinet and parliament.