Most important function of elections is to establish legitimacy of elected representatives in eyes of people of the country. Sceptical,untrusting observers should be able to see the election results are accurate. It’s not just sufficient for election results to be accurate but the public must believe it’s accuracy.
E voting and I voting was under discussion for many years in Pakistan and recently a legislation has been passed by parliament for implementation of E & I voting.
E voting which stands for electronic voting system in which a specific machine called EVM electronic voting machine is used to cast vote by pushing a button on specific candidate,s name in place of stumping manually on ballot paper and depositing it in ballot box.
On other hand I voting which stands for internet voting is a voting process designed for voters living in some other part of the world to give them access to be a part of electoral process in their county through internet.
In many world,s democracies issue of EVMs has become a matter of wide spread public debate.
No machine ever made is infallible and It is also a fact that like all other machines electronic voting machines are prone to errors and malfunctioning.
Parliament of pakistan in it,s joint sitting on 17th of November 2021 passed bill to amend electoral laws for using EVMs and to give right to overseas voters to vote through internet from country where they exist.
But before passing bill it had become a controversial legislation as this bill which previously had rejected by upper House of Parliament and not only opposition parties but some of government allies were showing their concerns and most of all Election Commission of Pakistan which is actually the responsible body to implement this legislation also has it,s concerns and queries presented in parliamentary committee earlier when the draft bill was introduced.
ECP In it’s written brief to the parliamentary committee raised 34 points of concern including
Lake of political consensus among stakeholders. Use of EVMs in haste without proper and massive testing. Possible breach of Secrecy of ballot.ECP In it’s brief also mentioned that
EVM will not counter all types of frauds and can open up with more sophisticated type of frauds through manipulation of software and hardware. There will be lake of evidence in case of election disputes.
This system will prove very costly as there would be about 1 lak polling stations and 4 lak polling booths. And if separate machines will be used for National and Provincial assembly seats around 9 lak machines will be required. And all expenditures including storage, hiring, training cost ,this system will cost approximately Rs 250 billion.
(Keeping in view that all elections in history of Pakistan have aggregate cost af not more than 50 billions. So by use of EVMs just one election will become many times costly than aggregate of all previous parliamentary elections in country )
Storage of 9 lak machines will also be a big issue as ECP has not capacity of such massive storage and to store them in any private warehouse can be risky and will creat chances of manipulations in machines and there are also question of sustainability of EVMs that for how many elections these machines could be used.
Polling staff , voters training ,logistics, security of machines all these concerns were raised by ECP which is yet to be addressed.
To give overseas voters right to vote through internet was a much earlier demand than EVMs and on directions of Supreme Court of Pakistan in April 2018 a task force in it,s report pinpointed some flaws in I voting.
Including secrecy of ballots, vote buying and coercion while voting outside a polling booth,hacker,s interference etc.
ECP also demonstrated I voting process In 35 by-elections in August 2018 on seats vacated after general elections of 25 th July same year. In those elections overseas voters registered themselves online through ECP website but their response to participate in electoral process was not much encouraging.
In earlier this year Government of pakistan through ministry of IT did a special audit to this I voting by an International firm which In it’s findings declared that the present internet voting system for overseas Pakistanis does not ensure vote secrecy,
The report states that the existing I-Voting system sampled in 2018 does not fulfill the Constitutional requirements of vote secrecy as neither the voters nor the Election Commission has any guarantee that the results obtained from the system represent the choices made by the voters.
Internet Hackers could get results at any time, or decrypt the individual vote of any voter.
With such loud a clear reservations by ECP and government’s own initiated audit by an international firm and without getting any broad based political consensus passage of E & I voting legislations raising questions and considering it a as political move by PTI government to gain sympathies and support of expats especially,
And use of technology which should be actually to avoid rigging allegations will fire up more controversies and make the electoral process more controversial, but on other hand government spokesmen declare this move a historic step towards transparency of elections and making electoral process simpler and easier.
After passage of new legislation which has already become a controversy ,now ball is in election commission,s court.
Most important task for this constitutional body would be to make it acceptable for all stakeholders.
The off the record discussion we had with ECP officials ,they find it hard to implement specially EVM in coming General Elections expected in 2023.
First we have to obtain EVMs on large scale in a transparent way by a well reputed company then train and equip our polling staff, educate voters and try and test these machines on a massive level in any electoral activity to confirm it’s compatibility and efficiency,this could take years time if stared immediately and it,s possible that EVMs could be tested on experimental bases in 2023 but it’s complete and flawless implementation in two years time couldn’t be possible,an ECP official discussed in off the record conversation.
On other hand I voting could be implemented as it was done in 2018 but with all it’s concerns and risks mentioned above.
Analysing all it’s pros and cons still with out a broad based political consensus and with hasty implementation of new electoral legislations 2023 election,s political and economic feasibility would be questionable as it could become not only controversial but would be the most costly and first billion dollars election in history of the country.
Sarfraz Raja is Islamabad based journalist and remained associated with top media organizations,He specialized in war and crisis reporting covered military operations and natural calamities besides Pakistan, Afghanistan Africa as well,also covered electoral and parliamentary affairs for national media.
