Tension on EVMs snowballs

ISLAMABAD: The bickering between the government and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) has snowballed into a full-scale war, with the federal ministers launching a new scathing attack on the commission accusing it of speaking the language of the opposition.

Addressing a press conference here alongside Minister for Science and Technology Shibli Faraz, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry said Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja should resign and join politics if he could not steer clear of controversies.

Fawad's critical remarks came despite the legal notices sent by the Election Commission to him and Minister for Railways Azam Swati for their allegations levelled against it. Fawad accused the CEC and opposition of creating hurdles in the way of electoral reforms.

"A campaign is being run against the EVMs," he said, adding that the CEC and the opposition "are speaking the same tongue". “The way the ECP raised objections to the EVMs reflects a particular mindset,” he said, adding that the CEC was against the EVMs "under some agenda", reports Geo News.

The minister said the objections to the use of EVMs were raised "deliberately" and only 10 out of the Election Commission of Pakistan's (ECP) 37 objections were related to them. He accused the ECP of neglecting all points in its report that were in favour of the EVMs.

Fawad also questioned the CEC's absence in meetings attended by the president, saying, "this is not a banana republic" for him to behave this way. "He doesn’t bother about the Supreme Court, the president of Pakistan, National Database and Registration Authority, or anything, if he is not in a good mood," the minister alleged.

The minister said it was the first time in Pakistan’s history that the government was speaking about bringing election reforms, as in the past it was always the opposition that talked about it. “The reforms introduced by the government have increased the people’s trust in the voting process far beyond the previous 33% and everyone agrees that the current election system needs reforms,” he said.

He reiterated that the PTI had always supported electoral reforms and EVMs because they wanted unbiased and fair elections. Fawad asked the opposition and ECP to put forward their suggestions for reforms if those forwarded by the government were not acceptable to them.

He said the government will ask two members of the ECP to step forward and review the points raised by CEC Raja in the ECP report. Faraz said the government was not talking about EVMs alone but also about the role of technology.

He said the government wanted to bring EVMs in order to make elections fair "but unfortunately the ECP itself is biased". "This will not be allowed that on the whim of one election commissioner, the country is taken off the path to progress," he vowed.

The science minister said the ECP "did not even bother to inspect the EVMs". “27 out of 37 objections raised by the ECP highlighted its own incompetence and were criticism against itself,” said Faraz.

He said the ECP was "just passing time" but he wanted to make it clear that this matter will not go to 2028. He said a bill will be passed for electoral reforms in the joint meeting of the Parliament.

Reacting to the two ministers’ criticism of the ECP, PMLN spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb called for the ECP to "punish" them for speaking out against it. She said the ministers were "blackmailing the ECP on the orders of Prime Minister Imran Khan", adding that pressure was being mounted on the institution so that a favourable ruling could be obtained in the "illegal foreign funding case" against the PTI.

She further alleged that PM Imran Khan was "pressurizing the ECP to stop a report on the Daska elections and theft of votes coming to the fore". Marriyum said the government "does not have the answers" to the questions raised by the ECP and parliament.

She said "provoking the ECP members against the CEC was an attack on the constitutional bodies", demanding that the ECP take a legal action against the federal ministers under Article 10 of the Election Act. “The serious allegations against the ECP are proof of the government’s undemocratic and dictatorial mindset,” said Aurangzeb.

She said the government and its ministers "who are a product of the Results Transmission System" are "levelling baseless allegations" against the ECP. The PML-N spokesperson said CEC Raja and the parliament were speaking the language of the law and Constitution "but the government cannot understand it".

Taking exception to the ministers’ statements against the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Sunday said they (federal ministers) had lost their temper after getting the ECP notices.

“Earlier, the Election Commission was threatened to be set on fire by a sitting federal minister, and now an organised campaign is being launched to make the constitutional body controversial,” said Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar.

Condemning the statements of the two ministers, Khokhar said the federal government was trying to tarnish the Election Commission’s reputation in order to rig the next general elections.

“The electronic voting machine (EVM) plan is actually a conspiracy to steal the general elections,” he said, adding that the ECP had opposed the government’s plan to use the EVMs and raised genuine concerns in this regard.

“The government is afraid of the ECP’s opposition to the EVMs,” he added. He said the chief election commissioner had refused to accept the government’s pressure in Daska elections and the ECP firmly stood against the Daska rigging and suspended the police and administration officers.

“The chief election commissioner is trying to restore the credibility of the Election Commission while the federal government wants to control it,” he said. He said the ministers are accusing the chief election commissioner to isolate him and make his position controversial. He said the CEC was appointed by none other than the PTI leadership.

He asked all the opposition parties, lawyers, journalists and other stakeholders to stand with the Election Commission for rule of law, supremacy of the Constitution and transparent elections.

Chairman Standing Committee on Information Broadcasting Senator Faisal Javed Sunday said EVMs would be used in the next polls. Talking to a private news channel, he said the political parties in the past were never satisfied with the results and termed all elections rigged.

“They blamed each other for rigging [the elections], '' said Senator, adding that the government had decided to conduct free, fair and transparent elections through the EVMs and remove all doubts.

He said it was the main responsibility of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to conduct free, fair and transparent polls across the country. To a question, he said Parliament would legislate to give the right of vote to the overseas Pakistanis.