Staff Reporter
Islamabad
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday said that his government plans to introduce an electronic voting system in Pakistan to ensure free and fair elections in the country.
During the briefing, the prime minister discussed electoral reforms and the elections in Gilgit Baltistan as well as the results of the recent polls.
Thanking the people of Gilgit Baltistan who came out of their houses despite the cold weather to exercise their voting rights and make the polls successful, Imran said that his government will make sure to give Gilgit Baltistan provincial status as soon as possible.
Citing the example of the 2013 and 2018 elections, PM Imran Khan said that it was the PTI which first started a campaign for free and fair elections in the country.
“In 2013, when all parties said that the polls had been rigged, we were the first ones to go to the courts to demand the audit of at least four constituencies, “ he said. “We also staged dharnas, after which 133 petitions were signed by different parties against rigging.”
He said that the purpose of demanding the audit of the four constituencies was not to win, but to set a precedent that rigging is not acceptable.
“Keeping in view the upcoming elections in Azad Kashmir as well as the Senate election, the PTI-led government wants to foster an environment where every party that faces defeat will readily accept the results of elections instead of complaining about rigging,” he said.
“For the purpose, we will introduce an electronic voting system in the country, just like the rest of the world, to make sure that the process remains transparent,” the PM added.
“We also want to set up a system for overseas Pakistanis so that they can cast their votes and become part of the democratic decision-making process in the country,” he said.
Revealing his plan for the upcoming Senate elections, PM Khan said that instead of secret voting. “We will introduce constitutional amendments to allow “show of hands” in the Senate voting process.”
The premier has previously talked about three electoral reforms – electronic voting, biometric verification, and electing senators through a show of hands instead of secret ballots.
His proposal for Senate elections may garner the support of opposition parties keeping in view the result of the no-confidence motion against Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani in August last year.
While speaking to media in Islamabad, the prime minister said that “everyone says that money is exchanged in Senate election” and recalled that the ruling PTI had expelled 20 of its own MPAs from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after it was found that they “sold their votes” in 2018’s polls of the upper house.
“What [the proposed amendment] would do is end the money exchange and corruption in the Senate electoral process,” he explained. “Now it is up to the rest of the parties whether they will support this constitutional amendment because a two-thirds majority is needed which we (government) don’t have.
“Once the [facts] would come forward, the shortcomings could have been overcome so that the next election is transparent,” said the prime minister and added that his party had approached the Parliament, ECP as well as the Supreme Court so that an investigation could be held. After exhausting all legal options for a year, the party arranged a 126-day long sit-in “so that the electoral process can be fixed”, he said.
The premier said that in the 2018 polls, the caretaker government as well as the chief election commissioner and the polling staff in Sindh and Punjab were selected by the PML-N and the PPP. He also pointed out that his government had constituted a committee to address the opposition’s grievances over election results and said that opposition members only attended one meeting.
“This was their seriousness in 2018,” he remarked.
“I am putting these figures forward [to clarify] that we did not have any role in [2018 election]. We did not elect election commission members, all the staff was their (PML-N’s) own as they were in power,” he declared.
