Daily Times

India is the world’s largest democratic country. This is our neighbouring country. Both Pakistan and India obtained independence from British rule on the same day. They still have many things in common as well as in contrast. Poverty and illiteracy dominate them. However, democracy is strong in India and very fragile in Pakistan. The main credit for strong democracy in India goes to its strong, fair and transparent electoral system. The weak electoral system in Pakistan has always fed conspiracies against democracy. Over a year has passed for the current PML-N government but rigging allegations continue to be made against it. The PTI is on the streets once again against so-called rigging in some constituencies in Punjab. The PPP has also alleged rigging at a massive level but it has decided not to take to the streets like the PTI. It is shocking that the director general (DG) of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has now, after a year, confessed to a typing mistake in the counting of votes in a polling station in the NA-68 constituency. The rigging allegations cannot be put to rest if we do not learn any electoral lessons from the recent Indian polls. India held the world’s biggest elections in April to elect 543 members to the Lok Sabha. The polls were held in nine phases from April 7 for the next 36 days. The counting of the votes took weeks and the results were declared on May 16. The BJP won the polls. There were no rigging allegations from any political party; all wholeheartedly accepted the poll results.

Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were used in the Indian general and state elections to implement electronic voting. By the use of these machines, a single voter can cast only one vote by pressing the blue button against the candidate of his choice. In this way, the EVMs ensure the principle of ‘one person, one vote’. The EVM can store a result for 10 years. If the court orders a recount, the control-unit can be reactivated by fixing the battery and it will display the result stored in the memory. A single EVM can count a maximum of 3,840 votes. Thus, the registered votes in a polling station in India do not exceed the vote counting capacity of an EVM — it counts five votes in a minute. In this way, there remains almost no time and chance for casting bogus votes.

In Pakistan, the voting system is very strange. The polls begin, close and the results come out the same day against 272 National Assembly seats and over 600 provincial assembly seats, excluding the reserved seats. Voting is through ballot papers with the use of thumb and stamp impressions. In this way, a man can cast as many votes as he desires and there is no real check on bogus votes. One wonders how, when despite having the latest rigging-free EVMs, India took 36 days to tally 543 seats and Pakistan took less than a day to count votes against over 850 national and provincial assemblies’ seats with its obsolete voting system.

There is a strong general perception in Pakistan that the main culprit behind our fragile democracy is our weak electoral system. An electronic voting system can play a huge role in burying rigging allegations and political instability, and ending the old culture of a single person casting multiple and bogus votes. The ballot paper based voting system in Pakistan has always been the bone of contention between political parties. The losing parties accuse the winners of getting votes through rigging, the way the victorious party, the PML-N, is still being accused of massive rigging. A victorious party’s mandate has never been accepted in this country, mainly due to suspicion of rigging in its victory. The PML-N accused then president Asif Zardari and his party during the last tenure of the PPP. Now the PML-N is being publicly chided by the PTI and other parties. This political disharmony will never die in Pakistan until and unless a fair and transparent electoral system is introduced in the country. Differing opinions over issues is the beauty of democracy but these allegations of rigging undermine democracy.

There appears to be no will on the part of the provincial governments to hold local body polls. And if by some chance the local body polls are held, there seems to be no preparation to conduct these polls under an electronic voting system to make them free, fair and transparent. It was observed during the past polls that the ballot paper based voting system appears a bit complicated to illiterate people. The allotted symbols on a ballot paper are numerous and match very closely. An aged voter may fail to identify the symbol of the candidate of his choice and may cast his vote for the wrong candidate. Some voters use their stamp on two symbols rather than one. In both ways, the votes are wasted. In an electronic voting system, the candidates’ pictures and symbols are clear and a voter cannot vote for the wrong candidate, and also not more than once. Thus, no votes are wasted. All the political parties in Pakistan must take measures for the introduction of an electronic voting system for the sake of democracy.

The writer is a blogger and freelance columnist