ISLAMABAD   -  Former interior minister and Chairman Institute of Research and Reforms Senator Rehman Malik on Sunday termed the idea of launching Electronic Voting Machine as another controversy.  

He said that new EVM is a modified form of Results Transmission System which was introduced to cover the election results and transfer of collection of voting data to the Election Commission of Pakistan through National Database and Registration Authority but it failed suddenly while communicating the results on Elections Day. He said, “I am not against the use of modern technology to make our election processes easy, transparent, cost-effective and free of ringing, but we need to look into its multiple aspects in light of experience and failure of the RTS and RMS.” 

He said that elections in Pakistan have always remained controversial and despite a lot of complaints and the establishment of investigative teams and commissions, the nation has not been able to know the results of investigations. He said that our election commission remained weak in its performance because of improper control of the election process. He said that attempt to establish RTS and RMS prototypes in Elections 2018 was a kind of electric reporting that eventually failed. The RTS was designed by NADRA which was cost-effective as well, but its purpose was frustrated for unknown reasons, he added. 

The former interior minister said, “We do not have a pulse system as yet, but most electronic communication is now dependent on private internet service, which is insecure and it looks like the present government is very keen on this and all set to conduct this highly expensive experiment of using electronic voting machines in Pakistan for the next general elections.” He said the idea of an electronic voting machine for Pakistan was conceived by him for the first time in his capacity as interior minister and he had got a detailed study and had also held many meetings with ECP over it. He said, “A major part of the team was not in favour of this, I, however, directed them to keep working and create a cost-effective feasibility report and they should be rigging-free electronic vote processes.” 

The NADRA team, in collaboration with ECP, continued to work on it and the nation witnessed the launch of the RTS software instead of a voting machine, he added. 

Rehman Malik said that RTS performed well in communicating the initial results until the dealing staff was ordered to put a stop to the use of it and it remained a mystery as to who ordered to shut the RTS? He said, “The mystery of the ordering authority could not be resolved through a voice recording was received through an unknown source, played by me in the Parliament in my capacity as the Chairman of Parliament Committee comprised of 23 members that looked into the allegations of rigging.” He said that RMS being faulty is another story and he firmly believes that India, through its EC company (The Electronic Council of Commerce Consultants), had hacked websites as RMS was launched by ECP in collaboration with UNDP and the quality/functionality of RMS was certified by Kualitatem Inc., duly registered in the USA, having its office in Lahore. 

While elaborating its technical feasibility, Rehman Malik said that there are 95,000 voter identification units, hence, going by the number of polling stations, polling booths, and voter identification units, Pakistan will need a total of 900,000-1,000,000 of these five different EVM modules to conduct polls for all provincial and national assembly seats in a single day. He said that the total cost for 900,000 to one million modules will eventually be Rs45 billion to Rs70 billion since the printer is the most expensive module. 

RTS modules will cost a further blow of Rs2-3 billion. A compromise on price would result in a compromise on quality, and we cannot afford to encounter another failure in our electoral system, he added. “The cost is also not the only headache since, to get one million modules by the time the 2023 election swings around, Pakistan will need to produce 3,000 modules a day, he added.

Senator Rehman Malik said that electronic voting was introduced in many developed countries as well yet it is declared an infamous idea for election over the series of serious doubts about the security, accuracy, reliability, and verifiability of electronic elections. He said, “I feel improvement in this system must continue and perhaps our experts need to bring an efficient system ensuring the rigging-free elections.” It looks to me that even if we spend multibillion rupees, we will still not have the right system, he concluded.