Pakistan to hold April Islamabad local polls using electronic voting machines

ISLAMABAD: Local government elections in Islamabad, slated to be held in April this year, will use electronic voting machines (EVMs), Minister of Science and Technology Shibli Faraz said on Monday. 
President Dr. Arif Alvi last year signed the Election (Amendment) Bill, 2021 allowing the use of EVMs in Pakistan.
Prime Minister Khan’s government has been pushing for the use of EVMs in future elections since it unveiled a prototype at the Parliament House last May. The idea of introducing EVMs — which directly record votes and are believed to prevent the irregularities that may occur during manual counting — also caught the spotlight last March after a government candidate lost a key senate seat to a joint opposition candidate, unleashing accusations of rigging and horse trading from the ruling party. A subsequent election for the post of senate chairman in April also became controversial after eight ballot papers had to be wasted by the presiding officer for breaking rules.
Opposition parties have been largely mistrustful of the government’s plans to introduce EVMs and experts have warned of large transitional costs and other technical and logistical issues. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the country’s top body responsible for carrying out elections in Pakistan, has also cast doubts over the execution of the government’s ambitious plan and the machines’ ability to ensure transparency in the electoral process. 
“Alhamdulillah, I want to share with you that the debate around the EVMs has entered into another phase,” Faraz said during a press conference on Monday, announcing that EVMs would be used in Islamabad local polls. “The focus of the debate is now on how we can use the EVMs, and how to plan for it.” 
He said the ECP had expressed willingness to hold Islamabad local government polls using the voting machines. 
“God has given us an opportunity,” he said. “The ECP has informed us about their requirements [for the EVMs] and has also informed us about the number of machines they will need for the Islamabad local government elections.”
“Though the elections will be held in April as per law, a final date is yet to be announced,” said the minister. “The government will provide some machines to the ECP next week for trial and testing.” 
Faraz said PM Khan hoped the use of EVMs would see transparent, accurate and non-controversial elections in the future in Pakistan.
“All three targets, transparency, non-controversial elections and accurate results will be achieved through the use of EVMs,” he added. 
He said a massive 234,000 votes were rejected in the recently held first phase of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa local government elections last month. 
“These were the wasted votes from elections held in half of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, not even the entire province,” he observed. “The results even came late, by the next day. Had we employed the EVMs, not a single vote would have been wasted.”
Former secretary election commission Kanwar Dilshad told Arab News last year it was unlikely EMVs could be introduced by the next general election due to financial, logistical and technical constraints.
“At least an amount of Rs1 trillion is required to replace manual voting with digital voting procedures such as Electronic Voting Machines, Biometric Verification Machines or Internet voting for Overseas Pakistani in general elections,” Dilshad said, saying Rs60 billion would be required for the procurement of 350,000 EVMs alone.
“In my opinion this is a futile exercise,” he said. “The Election Commission of Pakistan pilot projects regarding EVMs have failed in the past.”