Pakistani firm to supply voting machines to ECP

LAHORE: Pakistani firm SecureTech Consultancy has won the contract floated internationally by Election Commission of Pakistan to invite bids for the supply of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Biometric Verification Machines (BVMs) for general elections, The News learnt on Thursday.   The ECP, in a statement issued, said the contract was awarded after an extensive evaluation process, which involved presentations/demonstrations of the system to the Parliamentary Committee for Electoral Reforms, its sub-committees, concerned ministries, and departments. 

The Letter of Award was issued on Jan 5, 2017, while a formal contract signing ceremony took place in ECP headquarters.  According to the statement, Secure Tech will install the Hardware Security Modules (HSM) and the fingerprint scanners in its production facility and develop and deploy all associated software for the system.   It further said, the contract requires the delivery of the biometric verification system and 100 devices to be used as pilot in the next bi-elections to ascertain their accuracy and efficacy, adding, the findings of the pilot would lead to the strategy to implement this. 

Secure Tech is the largest supplier in Pakistan’s telecommunication industry with over 100,000 devices in the field and has played a vital role in recent mobile SIMs re-verification drive. Dermalog Systems (a German firm responsible for the fingerprint scanners and software) and Telepower (a Chinese company responsible for the device manufacturing) are also a part of this venture. 

The devices to be used by the ECP employ state of the art technology using an Octa Core processor with an embedded Optical fingerprint scanner, which is (US) FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) WSQ (Wavelet Scalar Quantization) and FBI PIV (Personal Identity Verification) certified. The matching algorithm performing a 1:1 match takes place inside the hardware Security module (HSM) which is FIBS-140 level 3 certified. All the fingerprints are encrypted and stored in the HSM ensuring the system to be secure and tamper with proof.