President Dr Arif Alvi expressed his dissatisfaction with the delayed election results on Saturday, saying that the country might have avoided the existing issue if Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) had been employed during the February 8 general elections.
Despite the commission’s lofty claims, the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) new Election Management System (EMS) failed to deliver as the election regulator failed to announce the preliminary results of all constituencies after nearly 72 hours.
Taking to Twitter, the president wrote, “Had EVMs been there today, my dear beloved Pakistan would have been spared this crisis.”
President Alvi recalled the former PTI-led government’s battles for EVMs, claiming that the entire endeavor, which comprised over 50 meetings at the Presidency alone, was scuttled.
“Remember ‘our’ lengthy campaign for EVMs. EVMs included paper ballots that could be counted individually by hand (as is done today), but they also included a rudimentary electronic calculator/counter for each vote button pressed.”
The president stated that if the machines had been used, the totals for each candidate would have been accessible and printed within five minutes of the poll closing.
Most major parties, including the PPP, stated concerns over the incredibly slow pace of results after the conclusion of the voting process on February 8.
