More than 350,000 EVMs to be Manufactured in 6 Months: Shibli Faraz

Yesterday, in a meeting with media persons, the Federal Minister for Science and Technology Shibli Faraz said that in order to make the upcoming elections free and fair, around 350,000 and 400,000 electronic voting machines (EVMs) are required. According to the minister, the required EVMs would be manufactured in six months period.

More than 350,000 EVMs to be Manufactured in 6 Months: Shibli Faraz

Using indigenous technologies, the EVMs are being developed at half the cost of imported devices by the National University for Science and Technology, COMSATS, and the National Institute of Engineering.

Furthermore, Shibli said that the EVMs would be rolled out after Eidul Azha for the members of the National Assembly and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for getting opinions and to convince them of its numerous benefits.

Moreover, the minister elaborated that around three institutes had the capacity to build 2,000 EVMs on daily basis. with each device costing an estimated Rs65,000, which was half the price of an imported device that had no guarantee of operating on a consistent basis.

According to Shibli, a special type of paper would be utilized in the machines on which ink would not fade or dull for a period of 5 years. He said,

Counting votes would be a push of a button away and could be completed between 30 minutes to one hour.

To put an end to controversies, he said, the PM had tasked the Ministry of Science and Technology with developing an EVM that would make the voting process transparent.

He said that the EVMs would have a battery life of just two days. While these voting machines would be experimented against cyber attacks, the identity of the voter would remain anonymous as information would be encrypted.

“No kind of tampering with the machine would be possible,” the minister said.

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