The entire effort, which included more than 50 meetings during the Presidency alone, was frustrated, says the president
- Remember 'our' long fight for EVMs: President Arif Alvi.
- He says the results would have been available in minutes if EVMs had been used.
- “EVM had ballot papers that could be counted separately […]”.
President Dr Arif Alvi, expressing annoyance over the delay in election results, on Saturday said the country would have been spared from the current crisis if electronic voting machines (EVMs) had been used during the general elections on 8 February.
The new Election Management System (EMS) of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has failed despite the commission's lofty claims as the election regulator has not announced the initial results of all constituencies even after almost 72 hours.
Taking his
Recalling the struggles of the erstwhile PTI-led government over the EVMs, President Alvi said the entire effort, which included more than 50 meetings at the Presidency alone, was frustrated.
“Remember 'our' long fight for EVMs. EVM had paper ballots that could be counted separately by hand (as is done today), BUT it also had a simple electronic calculator/counter of each vote button pressed.”
The president said the totals for each candidate would have been available and printed within five minutes of the close of voting if the machines had been used.
Almost all political parties, including the PPP, expressed concern over the incredibly slow pace of results after the conclusion of the voting process on February 8.
Earlier today, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) organized a protest over alleged rigging and tampering of results in PS-22 constituency of Sindh.
“Our [JUI-F’s] candidate was made to lose through [deliberate] changes in the results,” said JUI-F leader Rashid Mehmood Soomro.
“We won by [margin of] 7,000 votes according to form 45 that we have in our possession,” he stated and called for new elections in multiple electoral districts.
As the country witnesses delays in results after the conclusion of surveys, Moody's Investor Service had on Friday anticipated that timely declaration of results would alleviate the current uncertain circumstances in the country.
Grace Lim, an analyst at Moody's in Singapore, said: “This is crucial for the country which faces very challenging macroeconomic conditions, with a fragile balance of payments, weak growth and high inflation.”
