ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has taken a major step towards acquiring the facility of biometric thumb impression and electronic voting.

Law Minister Zahid Hamid informed a sub-committee of Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms on Wednesday that the ECP had finalised five of the 11 bids for electronic voting machines (EVMs) and two of the five bids for biometric machines.

Mr Hamid, who is chairman of the sub-committee, said the successful bidders would give demonstration of their machines to the commission in two weeks.

It is believed that the ECP will get the facility before the next general elections to be held in 2018. However, it is still uncertain if the commission will hold the next elections through electronic voting and biometric machines since provision of electricity in every constituency is a must for the new facility.

Moreover, most of the polling stations are set up in remote areas, including those places where there is no electricity and modern facilities cannot be applied there.

The initiative to equip the ECP with the latest facilities of biometric and electronic voting was taken by the last Pakistan Peoples Party government, but it could not turn its dream of e-elections into a reality.

A Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader said the ECP had been asked to publish advertisements inviting two tenders for the purchase of 400 and 300,000 EVMs.

The last meeting of the sub-committee was informed that 400 EVMs would be used during by-elections under a pilot project to see their results while 300,000 EVMs would be required to conduct the general elections in 2018 in one phase.

The PTI leader said EVMs could be used in the 2018 elections if the political leadership showed sincerity.

Law Minister Hamid said the sub-committee had accepted some recommendations of the ECP regarding unified election rules under which the ECP would unify all rules related to elections and bring them into a book form. It will be done for the first time in the country.

About the salary structure of ECP members, Mr Hamid said a bill had been prepared in this regard and it would soon be presented in the National Assembly for a debate. “We hope that we will have consensus on this bill in the Senate as well.”

About the issue of voting rights for overseas Pakistanis, the minister said the sub-committee would review its modus operandi at the next meeting.

He said the National Database and Registration Authority chairman had been directed to ease the process of registration of voters.

The committee unanimously rejected a proposal regarding change in procedure for Senate elections. “Almost all parliamentary parties have rejected the proposal and now the matter will be referred to the main committee,” Mr Hamid said.

Published in Dawn, August 11th, 2016