Staff Reporter Islamabad
The Election Commission of Pakistan on Thursday said that it is not yet clear whether Electronic Voting Machines will be used in the next elections or not.
The statement comes a day after a joint session of Parliament approved the use of EVMs for the next elections.
A meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Law and Justice, under the Chairman Riaz Fatyana, was held on the issues of EVMs.
The ECP secretary briefed the NA panel and said that it was too early to say whether EVMs will be used in the next elections. “There are challenges in using the electronic voting machine. It has to go through 14 stages [of trials] before being used in elections,” he said.
He said the ECP will have to run three to four pilot projects before using EVMs for the general election.
The secretary said they still needed to “figure out” the number of machines required at each polling station.
