PESHAWAR: The Election Commission of Pakistan on Thursday claimed to have finalised preparations for the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) during the NA-4 Peshawar by-election slated for Oct 26.

The voting system will be introduced for the first time in the country.

Briefing reporters at the Peshawar Press Club, ECP director general (information technology) Mohammad Khizar Aziz said the ECP had planned to launch several EVM and biometric pilot projects during the by-elections in the country under Section 103 of the recently-promulgated Election Act, 2017.

He said the report of using EVMs would be sent to parliament, media and people after the formal approval of the chief election commissioner.

ECP official says system promises faster delivery of results from polling stations

The ECP director general said candidates for the NA-4 by-election had expressed complete satisfaction with the introduction of EVM system as they had also submitted affidavit with the Election Commission in that respect.

He said as many as 269 polling stations would be established during the NA-4 by-polls.

Accompanied by ECP director (IT) Haider Ali, director (election) Mohammad Farid, DRO Peshawar Mohammad Fahim, Mohammad Saeed Sabir and Sohail Khan, the ECP official said more than 100 electronic machines would be used in more than 100 polling booths of 35 polling stations in both urban and rural areas for the first time in the history of the country.

He said around 47,255 voters would cast their votes through the EVM’s along with their manual voting process in the constituency.

Mr Aziz said the electronic voting system would not disturb the original manual electoral process.

He said the hypothetical name and electoral signs had been given in the electronic voting machines, wherein the registered voters would cast vote through EVMs along with manual voting process.

The ECP director general said four different systems, including GIS, result management, result transmission and EVMs, would simultaneously be used during the NA-4 by-poll to ensure free, fair, and transparent process.

He said around 50 separate staff members would be deputed to ensure that the original manual voting process is not obstructed on the polling day.

Mr Aziz said besides using machines for voting, the ECP had also decided to use cellphones to send the results of NA-4 by-elections from polling stations to the returning officer.

He said under the pilot project, the presiding officer would send the result of respective polling stations to the returning officer through use of this new technology, ‘which is more efficient and fast’.

The official said the election results could be sent directly to the computer system of the returning officer.

He said the ECP would be able to receive results from polling stations faster through the system.

The official said there was a difference between biometric and EVMs system.

He said both biometric and EVMs could be used during the by-polls process with the approval of the chief election commissioner.

He however said the original electoral process couldn’t be disturbed by the use of EVMs system.

When asked about the financial expenditure on procurement of EVMs, he said machines were much costly and therefore, the ECP had so far purchased around 150 machines.

Later, on the occasion, the ECP technical staff held a pilot testing session to demonstrate how the electronic voting machines can be used, wherein several participants, including journalists cast vote through EVMs system.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2017