ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has decided to hold a meeting of all stakeholders on introduction of EVMs and I-voting, to remove bottlenecks soon, well informed sources told Business Recorder.
The sources said that a report of Senate Standing Committee would be presented by August 31, for passage by the Senate on September 20. If passed with amendment, it will be placed for consideration of National Assembly by October 15. If rejected by the Senate, it will be referred for a Joint Sitting by October 30. The Joint sitting will consider it by November 30.
A consensus with opposition parties was forged in the Parliamentary Committee formed by the Speaker and NADRA was directed by the Cabinet Sub Committee to upgrade systems/modules by December 31.
NADRA asked by ECP to conduct two more pilot projects (four were required but only two done) as per agreement (April, 2018) on I-voting. Project cost was Rs 95 million out of which Rs 66.5 million (70%) has been paid to NADRA. Without completing an earlier project on this issue NADRA is asking for consent on upgradation of system/modules as a new project.
The estimated cost is Rs 2.4 billion for upgradation of system by NADRA. Approval of PSDP project by P&D Division for construction of data centre on ECP plot in sector H-11, Islamabad; NADRA may house the system on its own premises till construction on abovementioned plot.
NADRA has asked for one-year time to upgrade the systems/modules as per audit/recommendations of M/s MINSTAT - a Spanish consultant hired by MoI&T on consent of ECP. Eight months will be required to load each machine with constituency/polling station/booth-wise electoral rolls.
Talking about use of electronic voting in Election by December 31, the sources said, award of contract by ECP by December 31, was on the cards as per the Law/Ordinance. ECP has to complete specifications, tender documents, floating tenders and award of contract. Availability of components to be used for requisite EVMs are expected to suffer from supply chain difficulties due to Covid-19 environment. Production of three to four hundred thousand EVMs may take six months to one year, after award of contract.
Plan B for Overseas Pakistanis: Election Act may be amended to allow postal ballots for Overseas Pakistanis through their registration after amendment in ECP Rules for postal ballots procedures for Overseas Pakistanis as well.
Plan B for EVM: procurement/indigenous development of single equipment EVMs through TOT, in which a voter will place his thumb for verification and stamp the ballot paper for the favoured candidate and the machine will record it. Machine will print results at the end of voting. The voter will then put the ballot paper in the ballot box. Election law is required to be amended whether result on the basis of ballot papers will be final or an automated counting. Further, the fate of any difference in counting is unclear.
The Prime Minister underscored that the entire democratic process hinged on free, fair and transparent elections. Reiterating his commitment to the electoral reforms to make the elections indisputable, as far as possible, he exhorted that all impediments in the way of introducing EVMs and I-voting in the next general elections must be quickly overcome. He directed that a meeting of all stakeholders be called to iron out the bottlenecks.
The meeting decided that Prime Minister would chair a meeting of all stakeholders on introduction of EVMs and I-voting, to remove bottlenecks soon. The Parliamentary Affairs Division shall arrange the meeting in coordination with the Prime Minister's Office.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
Comments
Comments are closed.