Experts share election commission’s reservations over use of electronic machines in next elections

This undated file photo shows Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan at the demonstration of Electronic Voting Machine developed by Ministry of Science and Technology. (APP/File)

• Pakistan’s election body prepared a detailed list of objections earlier this week, saying it was not viable to use electronic devices for voting
• Analysts say electronic voting machines have not been tested and can be used to manipulate election outcomes

KARACHI: Political experts on Thursday agreed with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) regarding the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) while pointing out it was not difficult to tamper with these devices for election manipulation.
The ECP submitted a list of 37 objections to the Senate Standing Committee on Parliamentary Affairs earlier this week, warning that a hasty use of these devices could jeopardize the “conduct of free, fair, credible and transparent elections” in the country.
It added a largescale deployment of these machines was not possible in a short span of time, especially when they had not been properly tested and provided no ballot secrecy, voter anonymity and necessary transparency at various levels.
“About 400,000 experts will be needed to use of these machines during the general elections,” Kanwar Dilshad, a former secretary of Pakistan’s election commission, said. “These machines can also be tampered with.”
A senior ECP official denied the claim that her organization was reluctant to use technology while talking to Arab News.
“The ECP strongly believes in technology, but the electronic voting machines have serious issues and it is not possible to use them in the next elections,” Quratulain Fatima, director public relations at the commission, said.
She maintained there were several challenges related to the capacity and logistics of these devices, though she added that the ECP was most concerned about voter privacy along with the transparency of the system and security of data.
The election commission already mentioned in its report to the Senate standing committee that “public trust and confidence will remain shaky” in the election process if the machines were deployed.
It also added that Germany and Holland had abandoned them due to lack of transparency while Ireland, Italy and Finland had quit them due to lack of security.
Pakistan’s minister of science and technology Shibli Faraz already said on Wednesday that most of the ECP’s objections related to its own capacity issues while the rest of them had been addressed by his ministry.
The government, he said, was fully determined to do the required legislation to use these machines in the 2023 general elections.
Speaking to Arab News, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Senator Dr. Afnan Ullah Khan maintained the “government is in a haste” and had neither “built consensus over the use of these machines nor addressed the opposition’s concerns related to them.”
“We are not against technology or its use in holding elections,” he continued, “but the proposed system is flawed and built to steal elections.”
Abdul Jabbar Nasir, a Karachi-based analyst, said it was feared these machines could be used for election irregularities in the absence of manual voting.
“Rigging requires a lot of homework, planning, use of resources and time,” he told Arab News. “Now all of that can be done by using a system that can be manipulated by a few individuals.”
He agreed that the identity of the voter could be compromised through electronic voting.
“If they want to use it, it should be tested along with manual voting for at least two general elections,” Nasir said.
Robert Dobler, President Smartmatic Intl. Asia Pacific, the company that manufactured the EVM, however, said the system was working well in 10 different countries.
He admitted, though, that its success could only be fully ensured when people had faith in it.