ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s award-winning National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra), responding to an ongoing controversy over election thumb print verification, has taken the initiative of developing an indigenous electronic voting machine (EVM), which is proposed to be used at all polling stations across the country, official sources said here yesterday.
A spokesperson of Nadra said the system aims at ensuring transparency and rigging-free elections because each voter will be able to cast only one vote as opposed to the recent discovery of multiple voting by individuals in several electoral constituencies in the general elections held in May 2013.
Electronic thumb verification of each voter will be done at the polling station before casting the vote without the use of magnetised ink.
The new EVM solution will incur only 40 percent of cost of magnetised ink, which amounts to Rs2.5bn for a countrywide election.
The Nadra chairman said that Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the political parties would also be taken into confidence relating to the use of EVM enabling voters exercising their right of franchise in an ambience of confidentiality and security.
Special attention has been paid to ensure convenience for voters keeping in view the sensitivity of security and credibility of proposed system.
The Electronic Voting Machine will be installed at each polling station which also have electronic voter list of respective registered voter only.
On successful identification, voter authentication process will be initiated through which finger prints of voters will be verified against biometric in Nadra database.
INTERNEWS
