The Commission has found a list of 37 reservations and handed it over to the government authorities.
ISLAMABAD: (UrduPoint/Pakistan Point News-Sept 8th, 2021) Election Commission of Pakistan has warned the government of hacking of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and tampering of votes.
The ECP has found 37 points of reservations and handed over the list to the government authorities.
During a meeting of the Senate Committee, the Election Commission pointed out the challenges the system could face if the machines were rolled out in haste.
Federal Minister for Science and Technology Shibli Faraz has repeatedly insisted that the EVMs are the “best solution to rigging” in the next general polls and has even prepared a prototype of the machine for the Senate Committee on Parliamentary Affairs to examine.
PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal had said earlier that EVM were rigging machines. Now the ECP wrote that there was not enough time for a “large scale implementation of EVMs in the upcoming election.
Pakistan’s next general polls are slated for 2023.
Other challenges include, lack of secrecy of the ballot, lack of large scale pilot testing and the machines not being financially viable. The Commission further wrote that the EVMs cannot “prevent rigging like booth capturing”, pointing out that they were hackable and tamper prone. The software, it highlighted, could also easily be altered.
“It is nearly impossible to ensure that every machine is honest,” the ECP noted.
The EVMs cannot prevent low voter turnout, low women voter turnout, vote buying, misuse of state authorities and dishonest voting staff, amongst other things, the Commission argued.
The ECP also opined that holding polls across Pakistan in a single day, using EVMs, was not possible.
In order to solve the problems, the ECP suggested that a political consensus be developed in the parliament with all political parties and legal amendments be made to the constitution, law and rules to facilitate EVMs.
