I-voting for overseas Pakistanis: Hope for PTI, despair for opposition

ISLAMABAD: The introduction of an i-voting solution for overseas Pakistanis is giving great confidence to the ruling PTI because it could boost its prospects for a possible next term in government but is causing alarm among the opposition parties, particularly the PMLN.

The Pakistan People’s Party has also expressed its reservations about the new electoral scheme that the Imran Khan government is pushing for. But the PMLN is most worried because the party believes that it stands a chance to win the next polls if held fairly and freely.

Recent surveys and general assessments show that PTI is losing its popularity against the PMLN because of governance issues and performance problems, particularly in Punjab, which has always been the key factor in deciding who will rule the country.

However, this possible disadvantage to the ruling party in the next elections has been smartly neutralized by pushing for the introduction of i-voting amid the hope that the vast majority of the overseas Pakistanis continue to support Imran Khan and the PTI.

However, the opposition parties, particularly the PMLN and the PPP, have their reservations to the electoral reforms scheme introduced by the government. They suspect that the government is pushing for electronic and i-voting to rig the elections. The opposition parties do not oppose voting rights for overseas Pakistanis but are pressing for a mechanism other than the one introduced by the government.

PMLN leader Ahsan Iqbal recently said that the government had passed two laws in the National Assembly that paved the way for it to "rig" the next elections.

The PMLN leader said delimitation was made conditional on voter lists instead of population, while the voter lists were handed over to Nadra. With this, the government will be able to add whomever it wants in the lists and expunge any names so as to deprive people of their right to vote, he said.

On the issue of overseas Pakistanis being given the right to vote, he said separate seats should be allocated for them to vote on, as their participation in general elections could have adverse effects. "Pakistanis living abroad do not know anything about domestic politics; this would open the door for foreign intervention," he warned. Leader of the Opposition Shahbaz Sharif and PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto also rejected the government's proposal to use electronic voting machines in general elections. Prime Minister Imran Khan and his minister, however, press that the purpose of introduction of electronic voting is to ensure fair elections; i-voting for overseas Pakistanis will allow the Pakistani abroad to take part in the election process.

To the displeasure of the government, the Election Commission of Pakistan too has reservations to the new election scheme introduced by the government. The Commission has doubts about the fairness of i-voting for overseas Pakistanis as well as the electronic voting that the government wants to introduce for the entire 2023 general elections. The ECP also found many amendments to the recent Election Act 2017 as unconstitutional.

An international audit firm, engaged by the government, also recently reported that the existing i-voting solution for overseas Pakistanis has a number of shortcomings and does not fulfill the constitutional requirement of vote secrecy.

The report by the Spanish audit firm Minsait concludes: “As a result of the in-depth analysis of the existing i-voting solution, the audit team agrees that the system, at the state that has been shared with Minsait, does not fulfill the constitutional requirements of vote secrecy, and neither the voters nor the ECP would have any guarantee that the results obtained from the system represent the choices made by the voter.”

It warned that the technologies included by Nadra are outdated and vulnerable and could be exploited by attackers. I-voting would remain a risky affair even if the present system is improved, the report said, arguing that the resulting system would probably be more resilient than the current one but would still fail to give all the guarantees that voters and candidates deserve.