On Tuesday, Shibli Faraz; Federal Minister for Science and Technology release the statement that about 350,000 and 400,000 electronic voting machines (EVMs) are needed for conducting fair and transparent elections, and these machines would take 6 months to be manufactured.
While speaking to media reporters MR. shibli faraz said that “Using indigenous technologies, the EVMs are being developed at half the cost of imported devices by the National University for Science and Technology, COMSATS and National Institute of Engineering,”.
He further said that the EVMs are going to be launched after Eidul Azha for the members of the National Assembly & the Election Commission of Pakistan for inspection and to persuade them of its advantages.
He also stated that it would use a special type of paper in the machines on which ink would not fade away or dull for five years. “Counting votes would be a push of a button away & could be completed between 30 minutes to one hour,”.
once the EVMs were developed, they would be tested in by-elections, said by the minister to prove that technology is the sole solution to enhance the election process.
He clarified that only 3 institutes could manufacture 2,000 EVMs on a daily basis, each machine price is estimated to be Rs65,000, which was half the price of the imported machine having no guarantee of functioning properly.
He stated the EVMs will have battery life for 2 days. Also, the devices would be tested against different cyber-attacks, while the voter identity would remain anonymous as information would be encrypted. The EVMs would work in areas where temperature falls to 10 degrees below 0 & also in regions where mercury is touching 55 degrees centigrade mark.
“No kind of tampering with the machine would be possible,” said the Minister.
“The idea is that competent and qualified individuals should be elected as members of the parliament. Fair & transparent elections would enhance the functioning of the parliament. The entire country would be able to benefit from the use of advanced technology,” Mr. Faraz further added.
Also, To bring an end to the controversies, he stated, the PM had given responsibility to the Ministry of Science & Technology with developing an EVM that would make it to the voting process transparent and fair.
