By Asghar Ali Mubarak
ISLAMABAD: A high level delegation headed by Secretary Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday met Ambassador of Brazil to Pakistan Olyntho Vieira to learn about the Brazilian electoral experience of using Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and overseas voting (Internet Voting).
During the meeting, areas of cooperation were identified such as technical visits, exchange of experts, sharing technology, training and capacity building of the officials of the ECP.
ECP secretary Omar Hamid Khan said that ECP would like to benefit from the experiences of Brazil which shares numerous electoral and demographic similarities with Pakistan.
ECP would like to benefit from the experiences of Brazil which shares numerous electoral and demographic similarities with Pakistan.
The Secretary ECP explained that the ECP has been making concerted efforts to acquire the new technology and this requires following International best practices and standards.
He stated that, however, inherent challenges for acquiring this technology have to be surmounted where countries like Brazil present a success story.
The Brazilian ambassador briefly discussed about the gradual introduction of technology in the electoral process especially use of EVMs in Brazil where it evolved over a period of 30 years along with its main features, operations and functions during the elections.
He also offered support to ECP in the areas of selection of technology, training and provision of experts alongwith transfer of technology in elections.
He conveyed that in Brazil voting is compulsory up to 70 years of age. A fine is imposed for not participating in the election.
The Secretary ECP and the Ambassador to Brazil agreed to work closely on use of technologies and to formalize relations on the issue between the two countries.
Brazil has more than three decades of electoral technology experience and almost similar demographic and electoral features.
It was agreed to institutionalize different components of the EVM and Overseas Voting projects. The Election Commission has directed the Secretary to benefit from experiences of countries like Philippines, Estonia and others using EVM / I-Voting technology.
