THE present government seems determined to bring the much needed electoral reforms for which last month National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaisar had invited parliamentary leaders to a meeting, which the opposition refused to attend. While briefing the media after the meeting of electoral reforms committee, Prime Minister Imran Khan said that government has decided to introduce system of electronic voting and move a bill in the parliament to amend the current mode of secret balloting in the Senate polls to show of hand. For the passage of constitutional amendment bill two third majority is required whereas PTI led government has a razor thin majority in the national Assembly and the party is in minority in the upper house Senate. The rejection of FATF related bills in the Senate cast doubts on the success of the government to pass the bill amending the mode of upcoming Senate polls. However, if opposition opposes the bill then their stance on holding polls in fair and transparent manners will stand exposed and deflate and blast their disinformation balloon about rigging in 2018 polls.
Initially, both political and technical problems may be faced in the introduction of e-voting system due to the socio-cultural milieu of the country. It can be enforced in phases. The well-entrenched feudal and mercantile classes dominated political culture is the major stumbling block in electoral reforms. Electronic voting is the needs of the hour but will the electable from feudal and mercantile lent support to this systems, which is in vogue in functional democracies of both developed and underdeveloped countries? The mode of e-voting does not suit the psyche of the electable elite. The political culture is completely hostage to the oligarchy in rural Punjab and interior Sindh. It was because of this reason that millions of Pakistanis living abroad remained deprived of their due right of universal suffrage, which the Prime Minister hope to be able to cast their vote through mode of e-voting. For the computerized system of voting, an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) is designed which has two units: control unit and balloting unit. The two units are joined together by a cable. The control unit of the EVM is kept with presiding Officer or polling officer. The balloting unit is kept within the voting compartment. Verification of voter is done by biometric. With the EVM, the polling officer instead of issuing ballot paper press the balloting button, which enables a voter to cast his vote.
