July 3, 2021
The Elections (Second Amendment) Bill 2021 recently sailed through the National Assembly without any debate even though it changed two crucial provisions of the Elections Act, 2017 dealing with the right to vote to overseas Pakistanis and the introduction of electronic voting machines (EVMs).
Despite voting through paper ballot being the gold standard for democracies across the globe, the government is bent on introducing EVMs which it deems to be the panacea for all ills in our electoral system. Numerous lawyers and members of the opposition have raised serious questions on the haste with which the bill has been adopted as well as the wisdom for adopting electronic voting. If passed by the Senate in the same haste, this would radically alter the voting mechanism potentially putting a question mark over the democratic legitimacy of the amendments and, more importantly, damage the integrity of the election process.