ISLAMABAD:The federal government Thursday gave a practical demonstration to different trade bodies on the Electronic Voting Machine (EVMs), propounding the gadget as a panacea of all the malpractices in the electoral process.
Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib along with senior officials of Ministry of Commerce briefed the representatives of trade bodies especially Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) on salient features of the EVMs at the Pak-China Centre here.
According to the minister of state, the move was aimed at building public confidence on the technological intervention by encouraging the use of gadgets at grass root level prior to the general elections scheduled for year 2023.
He said the government had already proposed the trade bodies and National Press Club to use those machines in their elections so that their authenticity could be ensured before using them in the general elections.
Farrukh said the chief purpose of EVMs was to minimize human intervention in the entire electoral process through use of technology which was crucial to ensure free, fair and transparent election in the country.
The technological interventions in electoral process were being made across the globe, the minister said, adding at the moment the EVM was being used in more than 20 countries.
“We want to ensure use of Electronic Voting Machines in Pakistan so that the election could be held in a transparent manner,” he maintained.
Taking a leaf from the past electoral history of country, the minister recalled outcry of different political parties on miscalculation of votes on form 45, and lifting and stuffing of ballot boxes.
The new interventions made by the government for the elections could help eliminate all such malpractices, he added.
He said it would not ensure secrecy of voters, but also rule out any possibility of rejection of votes.
Tariq Malik, a representative of company, said the battery embedded Korean manufactured voting machine could work for 28 hours without electricity. The use of this machine could eliminate the chances of polled votes’ rejection. Each ballot paper would have a bar code, making double vote or casting same vote in another machine impossible.
At the very outset, he said the machine would clearly display the picture and name of a candidate.
A voter was simply required to click only the name of candidate of his choice. In case of a click on wrong candidate, the voter could cancel the vote as the machine asked for confirmation before printing the vote.
The whole voting process would be completed within a ten second time, he said, adding the print could be obtained immediately after closing of polling.
The representative also gave response to the queries raised by trade bodies’ representatives, journalists and other officials.