Daily Times

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government have come face to face over the matter of using electronic voting machines (EVMs) in the upcoming general elections.

The ECP’s concerns over EVMs came to fore on Saturday after it posted a video of a journalist on its official Twitter handle titled: “Voting machine an expensive fraud formula”.

Soon after the video was posted, the ruling party leaders and others lashed out at the ECP, accusing it of supporting the opposition parties that oppose the government’s move to introduce EVMs in the elections.

The backlash forced the ECP to delete its tweet later.

Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib said that the ECP is a constitutional body and it cannot do anything outside its ambit. He criticised the ECP’s tweet, saying the matter of EVMs is pending to be debated in parliament, adding that “how come ECP call it a fraud” before that.

Farrukh demanded the chief election commissioner to explain as to how the controversial video was shared from its official Twitter handle.

On Thursday, the ECP had constituted a committee for the procurement of EVMs and to enable the overseas Pakistanis to exercise their right to vote while staying in their country of residence. The committee under the supervision of the ECP secretary will forward its recommendations in the next meeting.

The election supervisor, which met on Thursday under the chairmanship of chief election commissioner (CEC), reviewed the presidential ordinance on EVMs and overseas Pakistanis’ right to vote.