In Pakistan, the use of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and other voting tools is becoming more and more of a point of contention. Some people think that these tools can help make voting more efficient, clear, and safe. Some people worry about how safe and reliable these devices are. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is thinking about whether EVMs should be used in the next general elections.
General Elections 2023 are approaching, and the country is entering the pre-pre-General Elections phase in the coming few months. But the political turmoil is already at its height. A recent example of this is the problems facing by the Balochistan government[1] and positions of the Federal Government and the opposition parties on using the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) and give the right to vote to the overseas voters by deploying Internet Voting (I-Voting) in the coming general elections by amending the Elections Act, 2017.
Using technology in the electoral process is not a bad idea at all, but the use of technology should be slow and not change the shape of the entire electoral system at once which may lead to colossal damage to the electoral process in the coming days. There are various areas in the electoral process in which technology can be used, infect the Election Management Body (EMB) is already using the technological solutions to improve the quality of the elections in the country and gain the trust of all election holders. New technologies will help to improve the dissemination of election results, improve the accuracy at every level of the process, improve voter registration, voter education, and inclusiveness in the electoral process.
Table of Contents
The Elections Act, 2017
Before the introduction of the Election Act, 2017, there was about several laws and orders were placed to hold the elections in the country such as, the Electoral Rolls Act, 1974 (Act No. XXI of 1974), the Delimitation of Constituencies Act, 1974 (Act No. XXXIV of 1974, the Senate (Election) Act, 1975 (Act No. LI of 1975), the Representation of the People Act, 1976 (Act No. LXXXV of 1976), the Election Commission Order, 2002 (Chief Executive‘s Order No.1 of 2002), the Conduct of General Elections Order, 2002 (Chief Executive‘s Order No.7 of 2002), the Political Parties Order, 2002 (Chief Executive‘s Order No.18 of 2002), and the Allocation of Symbols Order, 2002. In order to demand the mainstream political parties and other stakeholders, a unified law was formed which is now called the Elections Act, 2017. The Elections Act, 2017 seeks to address the shortcomings of previous laws, and this law also emphasizes the use of technology in the elections as this law obliges the Election Commission of Pakistan to establish the result management system[2] which helps for timely dissemination of results among the stakeholders and the commission shall also make arrangement for the computerization[3] of electoral rolls (voter lists), the commission is also obliged to conduct pilot project of Electronic Voting Machines[4] (EVM) General Elections 2018 was the first general elections since 1970 held on completely new and unified election law.
Amendment in the Elections Act, 2017
The current government passed two bills on June 10, 2021 from National Assembly to amend the Elections Act, 2017. In first bill about 49 amendments were passed by the National Assembly[5]. These are the major amendments in the elections Act, 2017 ever since the law came into force. The bill broadly covers the Senate Elections, inclusion of marginalized groups of the society such as women and minorities seats, process of delimitation of the constituencies for National and Provincial constituencies on the basis of final voters appeared on electoral roll instead of population, the voting right to the overseas Pakistanis in coming elections.
On the same date the National Assembly passed another bill[6] which includes only two amendments in section 94 which deals with voting rights for overseas Pakistanis and section 103 which deals with electronic voting and biometric verification in the Elections Act, 2017. Amending the section 94 in two different bills in different ways on same date was awful. The amendment in section 103 which deals with electronic voting machines has been under debate since the amendment is passed by the National Assembly.
Electronic Voting Machine (EVM)
As per the section 103[7] of the Elections Act, 2017 that the Election Commission of Pakistan will conduct the pilot projects for utilization of electronic voting machines and biometric verification system in by-elections in addition to the existing manual procedures for the voter verification, casting and counting of votes to assess the voting machines and biometric verification system and share the results with the government. The Election Commission of Pakistan deployed 100 Biometric Verification Machines (BVMs) and 150 Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in NA-120 Lahore-III by-election held in September 2017 on an experimental basis, similarly, 120 Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were deployed at 35 polling stations in NA-4 Peshawar-IV by-election held in October 2017. The results of the deployment of EVMs and BVMs were not satisfactory, and the reason was lack of trust of election stakeholders, mainly the voters. The Commission submitted the reports to the government, but those reports were not tabled in the assembly which is the incompetence of the government because if these reports were tabled in the assembly, they would be debated so that the government and the opposition political parties can take a decision on it. The recent amendment in the section of 103 of the Elections Act, 2017 suggested that the Election Commission of Pakistan shall procure the electronic voting machines (EVMs) for casting of voters in General Elections. It assumes that everything has been left to the discretion of the commission. Before the deploying of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) the parliament needs to amend the following relevant sections of the elections act, 2017 which deals with the voting processes at the polling station. Because election If this is the only amendment in the law then these Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) are not complying with the following sections of the elections act, 2017.
- Section 84 (Voting Procedure)
- Section 85 (Tendered Ballot Papers)
- Section 86 (Challenge of voters)
- Section 87 (Spoilt Ballot Papers)
- Section 88 (Stopping of the poll)
- Section 89 (Voting after close of the poll)
- Section 90 (Proceedings at the close of poll) [8]
The contesting candidates deploy their polling agents at the polling stations to monitor the voting process at a polling station on the behalf of the candidate. Polling agents can challenge the voter if the polling agent thinks that the voter has already voted or someone else has voted on behalf of the voter or the voter does not belong to that area. But when all process is done by the machine then on what grounds is the polling agent able to challenge the voter? So, it means that if the machines are deployed in the coming elections, then there will be no need for polling agents if there is no responsibility of polling agent in the elections so it’s assumed that section 86 of the elections act, 2017 will be deleted.
Voting on National and Provincial Constituencies
The voting on national and provincial constituencies takes place simultaneously on election-day during the general elections, [9]a voter is given two ballot papers, one for the National Assembly constituency and one for the Provincial Assembly constituency under the current procedure of the voting. If the machine is brought to the polls, will there be separate machines for the National and Provincial seats at one polling booth or will this facility be available within a single machine? If this facility is available in a single machine, then how will the ballot paper indicate for which assembly this vote has been cast by the voter?
Counting of Votes
The one thing is common in the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) which made by the Ministry of Science and Technology and other companies which are currently present in Islamabad to sell the machine to the government is that both machines producing the ballot paper (marked ballot paper as vote) and the machines also records the votes in its internal database. So, which ballot paper will be part of the counting process? the ballot paper placed in the ballot box, or the votes recorded by the machine inside its internal database? If the political parties agree that the both the ballot box and the machine-recorded votes will be part of the count, this situation could also lead to considerable difficulties, for instance, as per the number of votes recorded by the machine that one party is winning, but the count of ballot box vote is completely different and another party secured the most votes which may trigger the violence at the polling stations.
Internet Voting (I-Voting) for Overseas Voters
Back in 2018 the Honorable Supreme Court of Pakistan gives voting rights to the overseas Pakistani. The Honorable Judge also ordered to conduct the pilot project for overseas voters in by-elections. (The by-elections were held immediately after the General Elections 2018 on about 35 national and provincial assemblies).
To oblige the order of the apex court of the country the Election Commission of Pakistan conducted the pilot project to give right to vote to overseas voters by using internet voting (I-Voting) developed by the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA). On April 2018 the Election Commission of Pakistan constituted the Internet Voting Task Force (IVTF) for the conduct of third-party evaluation and technical audit of the web-based system. The mandate of IVTF was to assess the technical efficacy, secrecy, security, financial feasibility, software, hardware, network connectivity, web, email security and other involved components.
The Internet Voting Task Force (IVTF) submitted the report to the commission on the use of internet voting system for overseas voters. The report includes the overall technical evaluation and recommendations by the task force. The task force in recommendations section stated that “We don’t not recommend the deployment of the I-Voting system in its current form for overseas Pakistanis in the forthcoming General Elections of 2018”. The reports also said that the deploying Internet voting for overseas in the General Elections 2018 would be hasty step with great consequences[10]. The issue of voting rights of overseas Pakistani has not been discussed for several years since the report was published by the IVTF in 2018. But the issue resurfaced in June 2021 when the National Assembly amended Section 94 [11] of the Elections Act, 2017 which deals with “Voting by Overseas Pakistanis”.
Some serious questions may arise after section 94 is amended such as, that who will decide the eligibility criteria of the overseas, who will be responsible for the registration of voters living aboard the Election Commission of Pakistan or NADRA? Because there are over nine million Pakistani citizens living aboard and some constituencies the number is very enormous. If NADRA is registering the voters of people living abroad, the role of the Election Commission is not visible in this whole exercise. Claims and objection on overseas voters is also not clear that how a voter can register his/her complaint, objection or claims if the his/her vote is not appeared or not properly appeared on the final voter list of the constituency?
Government and Opposition
Government and the opposition political parties poles apart on the use of electronic voting machines in the coming General Elections 2023. The government arguing that the deployment of electronic voting machines will ensure the transparency of the elections and the questions have always been raised about the legitimacy of the elections in the past to prevent them in the future. Some ministers of the present government have been saying that the next elections in the country will be held through electronic voting machine and even president himself also taking keen interest to deployment of the EVMs and he holds several meetings with the ministers, officials, technical experts and civil society representatives. Government also taking initiative to promote the use of EVM in the coming election to the public and planning to demo of the machine to people across the country. So that the government can take the citizens into confidence and inform them about the use of this machine and its usefulness because government believes that this is the only way to bring transparency in the elections. But the decision to use electronic voting machines in elections is currently unilateral only government and supporters of the current ruling party seem to welcome this decision of their party to use EVM in the elections.
However, the opposition parties are completely opposing the deployment of EVMs in the coming elections because the opposition political parties feel that the current government is clearing the way for the next elections and is trying to play an undesirable game like rigging in the upcoming elections through electronic voting machines. But simply rejecting something that is not right, then it seems that the opposition parties also want to some extent that the next election should be through electronic voting machines (EVM). It is seen that more than half of the population of the country[12] is youth and the decision to use technology in elections is enough to attract the young population because they think that if electronic voting machines are used, the problems within the electoral processes will be fixed. So, it seems that the opposition parties have failed to convince their voters that it is inappropriate to use of electronic voting machines in the next elections. There is no denying how much confidence the country’s young generation has in the use of technology, and it is very difficult for opposition political parties to convince such voters that the current government/political party wants to rig the elections by using electronic voting machines (EVM). The political parties should face the voters with a convincing argument.
Cost of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs)
Holding a General Elections in a country is a gigantic task that requires a lot of human resources as well as a huge amount of capital. During the General Elections 2018, the Election Commission of Pakistan established over 85 thousand polling stations across the country and over Pkr 25 billion were spent on it. The rough assessments based on the assumption that the election management body planning to establish 1,000,000 polling stations across the country in the coming General Elections 2023 and on average there will be three polling booths will be established in a polling station. If three polling booths are set up in one polling station and one machine must be present at each polling booth, then around 300,000 Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) will be required at polling stations across the country. And even if we assume the price of a machine is about Rs 100,000, then the Election Commission of Pakistan would need about Rs 30 billion just to buy the machines, and maybe the cost of a machine is twice as much as we estimate. The problem is not just buying machines or using them on election-day. There is a need for space to store these machines and to enable these machines to be used in the next elections as well. There must also be technical staff, and for all these works, the Election Commission of Pakistan will need billions of rupees separately.
Conclusion
The number of rejected votes in the 2002 general election was 775,720, in the 2008 general election it was 97,3694, and in the 2013 general election it exceeded 1.5 million, and in the 2018 general election the number of rejected votes was about 1.67 million[13]. There were many reasons for rejection of the votes but the most important was that the method of marking the voter on the ballot paper was incorrect or there were marks on more than one candidate. As per the Pakistan Economic survey 2020-21[14] that the literacy rate of population is stagnant at 60 percent in 2019-20 as compared to 2014-15 and about 52 percent population of the country is registered as voter, this shows that most of the registered voters in the country are illiterate and this is the reason behind the rejection of the votes during the general elections. The government and Election Commission of Pakistan should first encourage voters in by-elections or coming local government elections in the country to cast the voting by using Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) so that people can build their confidence on the machines otherwise the electronic voting machine will be nothing more than a machine for an illiterate voter, and using the machine in coming elections in such a short period of time can have a very bad effect on voters turnout.
Before the using of EVMs or BVMs on election-day for voting process which is the critical phase of any election. The government and Election Commission of Pakistan should identify and evaluate the areas where technology is needed on priority basis, such as Determination of administrative boundaries, Using GIS for mapping polling station on google map, registration of political parties for participation in the elections, monitoring the election campaign and maintain the records of violations occurred during the election campaign period, to assist the field staff including Returning Officers during nomination papers process, and technology may also be used for voter registration from identification of eligible voters till the registration. Before adopting and final implementing of any technology, election commission should need test the features of the system and outcome of adopted technology and make sure that system works properly when needed and train staff for the final and proper implementation of the system. Using of technology (EVM) this is not a political issue at all. Well, the majority of one vote can amend the law, but these electoral reforms are based on consensus, not the majority of votes.
[1] https://www.dawn.com/news/1653783/jam-kamal-khan-steps-down-as-balochistan-cm
[2] Section 13, of the Elections Act, 2017.
[3] Section 23 (2) of the Elections Act, 2017
[4] Section 103 of the Elections Act, 2017
[5] http://www.na.gov.pk/uploads/documents/1623930348_372.pdf
[6] http://www.na.gov.pk/uploads/documents/1623933793_182.pdf
[7] Section 103 of the Elections Act, 2017.
[8] The Elections Act, 2017
[9] Section 84 of the Elections Act, 2017
[10] Findings and Assessment Report of IVTF on Voting Rights of Overseas Pakistan
[11] Section 94 of the Elections Act, 2017
[12] District-wise final results of the population published by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) (Data of 18 and above is table 21 in each district’s tab)
[13] https://fafen.org/nearly-1-67-million-ballots-excluded-from-the-count-in-general-election-2018/
[14] https://www.pc.gov.pk/uploads/cpec/PES_2020_21.pdf
