ISLAMABAD: An electronic voting system is not appropriate for countries such as Pakistan, an NGO representative told the Senate Standing Committee on Parliamentary Affairs on Wednesday.

The representative added that electronic voting is considered doubtful around the world, and should not be introduced in Pakistan because it will create problems and cast doubt on electoral results.

The committee meeting, chaired by Senator Sassui Palijo, was considering a calling attention notice regarding a report by an Election Commission (ECP) working group on e-voting for overseas Pakistanis moved by Senator Mohammad Javed Abbasi in the Senate on Oct 5, 2018. Senator Abbasi told the committee he has researched electoral reforms from 2013 to 2015.

All political parties favour voting rights for overseas Pakistanis, Senator Javed Abbasi says

He said all political parties were in favour of voting rights for overseas Pakistanis and had sought the ECP’s opinion, which had then established the working group.

“The group had held a number of meetings and it was informed that e-voting was not possible in Pakistan. It was also informed that the Results Transmission System (RTS) and RLS were very good systems but both system got stuck or failed due to lagging in the general election,” he said.

He added that the ECP had convinced political parties that the system should not be introduced in Pakistan, but could not convince the Supreme Court.

However, an ECP representative said no political party supported the ECP in SC. He said that although the ECP tried to persuade the court, its proposal was rejected.

The committee was informed that around seven million overseas Pakistanis are eligible to vote. During by-elections in 37 constituencies, 700,000 overseas Pakistanis were eligible to vote but only 7,000 did so.

Senators were also told that a taskforce was established that included IT experts, but the committee also expressed concerns regarding an electronic voting system.

Senator Waleed Iqbal from the PTI said that although he favours giving overseas Pakistanis the right to vote, that only 7,000 Pakistanis voted showed the failure of the court decision. Senator Palijo said that if committee members had concerns about the system, the committee could direct for the e-voting system to be simplified.

It was decided to raise the matter in Senate proceedings so a collective opinion and decision can be determined.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2019