400,000 Electronic Voting Machines To Be Ready In Next 6 Months: Federal Minister

Federal Minister for Science and Technology Shibli Faraz has stated that around 350,000-400,000 electronic voting machines (EVMs) are required for making fair and transparent elections, which will be set up in six months.

As per the report, Shibli Faraz expressed the wish of the Prime Minister and stated that National Science and Technology, COMSATS, and the National Institute of Engineering are producing EVMs by using local technology, at half the price of imported equipment for avoiding controversy in the electoral process.

According to him, the EVM would be activated by the members of the National Assembly and the Election Commission of Pakistan after Eid-ul-Adha to raise awareness about its benefits, its trust, etc.

Shibli Faraz told that the only solution to improve the electoral process is EVM, and once it is ready, it will be utilized to test the performance in the by-elections.

He elaborated that the three above-mentioned institutes are capable and can manufacture 2,000 EVMs daily. Besides, each device is projected at Rs. 65,000, half the cost of an imported device to work properly.

According to him, a special paper will be used in these machines on which the ink is not removable for 5 days. The counting of votes would be just a push of a button away and could be finished in 30 minutes to an hour.

Shibli Faraz stated that the EVM would be able to work for two days with the help of batteries and the machines would also be tested against cyber-attacks.

“As the information will be kept confidential so the identities of voters will remain anonymous. EVMs will function in areas where the temperature falls from zero to 10 degrees Celsius, also including the areas where the mercury is 55 degrees Celsius,” he said.

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Any tampering with the machine would not be possible, the Federal Minister stated.