Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that electronic voting was the only way to ensure transparency and prevent rigging in the elections, a statement from the PM Office said Thursday.
The premier’s comments came during a meeting in Islamabad, where he was briefed on the use of electronic voting machines in the electoral process.
Minister for Science and Technology Shibli Faraz, Leader of the House in the Senate Senator Dr Shehzad Wasim, Minister for Railways Azam Khan Swati, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib, and Advisor to the Prime Minister Babar Awan were present during the briefing.
The prime minister was given a detailed briefing on the progress made so far in the use of the electronic voting machine and legislation in this regard.
PM Imran reiterated his commitment to ensure transparency in the use of electronic voting machines in the electoral process and fulfil all constitutional requirements.
“Overseas Pakistanis are an asset of the country, they must be involved in the election process […] electoral reforms, electronic voting, and voting process for overseas Pakistanis should be completed soon,” he instructed the concerned officials.
On June 10, the House had passed the Elections (Second Amendment) Bill which pertains to the fair, free and transparent election through the utilisation of technology and modern gadgets.
The bill is also aimed at granting voting rights to the Overseas Pakistanis which may only be possible by vesting exclusive authority in ECP with the technical assistance of NADRA and other agencies.
Amendments were sought in section 94 and 103 of the Election Act,2017, to achieve the aforesaid objectives.
The opposition parties have rejected the government’s electoral reforms, with PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal, last week, saying the government had passed two laws in the National Assembly that paved the way for it to “rig” the next elections.
Last month, the Pakistan Democratic Movement had also rejected the government’s “one-sided” electoral reforms, which include the use of electronic voting machines, and announced a fresh wave of anti-government protests.
“PDM rejects the government’s unilateral electoral reforms ordinance, including the voting machines, and terms it as pre-poll rigging,” PDM chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman had said, as he addressed a press conference alongside PDM leaders.
In this regard, the Election Commission of Pakistan — which is responsible for holding transparent elections — should call a meeting of all political parties to take a unanimous decision on reforms, he had said.
Information Minister Chaudhry, speaking on the floor of the National Assembly on June 7, had said the Opposition had refused to talk to the government over electoral reforms.
“When we speak to them about electoral reforms, they ask us to first [amend] National Accountability Bureau laws,” he had said.
Moreover, the present internet voting system for overseas Pakistanis does not ensure vote secrecy, finds a confidential audit report prepared by a Spanish company for the government, Geo reported.
The over 200-page report has been prepared by Minsait, a Madrid-based company. Minsait was tasked by the Ministry of IT earlier this year to analyze the existing I-Voting system for ex-pats, as well as offer recommendations to improve the system before the 2023 polls.
After a six-week audit, the report was presented by the company to the government on May 31.
The report states that the existing I-Voting system, which was sampled in 2018 by the Election Commission of Pakistan, “does not fulfill the Constitutional requirements of vote secrecy,” adding that neither the voters nor the Election Commission has “any guarantee that the results obtained from the system represent the choices made by the voter.”
Minsait notes that the Constitution of Pakistan does not explicitly allow online voting, but any internet voting system must ensure the secrecy of the ballot, as mentioned in the Constitution.
The report then critiques each aspect of the internet voting system in detail, adding that it will need to be improved before I-Voting can be offered to overseas Pakistanis.
In regards to voting encryption, the company states that the encryption process is very inefficient. “The vote is encrypted on the server, this allows an internal attacker to know what the voter voted.”
It further adds that an internal attacker “could get results at any point in time, or decrypt the individual vote of any voter.”
On voter privacy, it warns that the private system can be broken at several points, explaining that the current voting process “does not guarantee that false votes are not introduced in the ballot box. Also, the removal of votes cannot be detected.”
Troublingly, it notes that the team has “high confidence” that the system was feasible to denial of service attacks, which would not let voters vote.
Minsait recommends that for the existing system to be upgraded, and made secure, could take between one-and-a-half to three years with a team of at least 15 to 30 engineers.
It also adds that all overseas voters will not be able to vote in a single day, due to differences in time zones.
Hence, “most countries allow voters voting from abroad a period between 5 and 14 days to cast their votes from remote locations.” It then gives the example of Mexico, which allows voting from abroad during a two-week period.
Also, an essential requirement for the internet voting system to work, the report highlights, is for the system to be trusted by all stakeholders.
The company further notes with concern that the ECP’s recommendation on online voting, prepared in 2018, has yet to be implemented by the government.
With additional input from INP
