ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) says that it has no plans to procure electronic voting machines (EVMs) and biometric verification machines (BVMs) from India for 2018 general elections.

A senior official of the ECP told Dawn that three firms had been “technically qualified” for supplying EVMs and two for supplying BVMs and none of the five companies was Indian.

He said the commission was in the process of acquiring 400 EVMs and 300 BVMs for a pilot project only.

A petition filed in the Lahore High Court on Friday claimed that three Indian companies — Indira Kamra, Reliance and Morpho — had also submitted their bids for supplying the machines and the commission was likely to approve their bids. The petition argued that it would be dangerous for Pakistan’s security if the machines were purchased from Indian companies.

“The ECP has not allowed any Indian firm to participate in the process of procurement of the machines,” the official said. “Rather, the commission has taken extra precautions and made it mandatory for qualified firms to get security clearance from top intelligence agencies before a contract is awarded to them.”

He confirmed that Indira Systems and Reliance were among the qualified firms but said that Indira Systems was a purely Spanish company. “It has a Spanish chief executive officer and none of the members of its board of directors is an Indian national. One should not be confused by the company’s name.”

Likewise, he said, Reliance was a Pakistani firm which ran its business in collaboration with a Spanish firm namely Scytl. Morpho is a renowned French firm but it is nowhere in the play as it has been technically disqualified.

He said of the three local companies technically qualified for supplying EVMs, one had collaboration with a US company and two had their principle companies in Spain.

Similarly, he said, the companies technically approved for the supply of BVMs included a Spanish firm and a local firm in collaboration with a German company.

The official said biometric verification machines were not used in Indian elections and the specifications of the electronic voting machines used in that country were entirely different from those approved by the ECP.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2016