President Alvi says EVMs may have prevented the delayed election results
President Dr. Arif Alvi expressed his frustration on Saturday on the postponed election results and stated that if the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) had been in use during the general elections on February 8, the nation would not be facing this current crisis.
Despite the commission’s lofty claims, the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) new Election Management System (EMS) failed, as the election regulator has yet to release the preliminary results for every constituency, nearly seventy-two hours after the polls closed.
“Had EVMs been there today, my dear beloved Pakistan would have been spared this crisis,” the president said on his X handle.
President Alvi recalled the fight for the EVMs waged by the previous PTI-led government, saying that the entire endeavor—which involved more than 50 meetings at the presidency alone—was abandoned.
“Recall ‘our’ protracted battle for EVMs. In addition to having paper ballots that could be manually tallied separately, as is currently done, the EVM also included a basic electronic calculator that counted each vote button that was hit.
According to the president, if the machines had been used, the totals for each candidate would have been accessible and printed five minutes after the polls closed.
Remember ‘our’ long struggle for Electronic Voting Machines. EVM had paper ballots that could be counted separately by hand (like it is being done today) BUT it also had a simple electronic calculator/counter of each vote button pressed. Totals of every candidate would have been…
— Dr. Arif Alvi (@ArifAlvi) February 10, 2024
After the voting process ended on February 8, nearly every major party—including the PPP—voiced complaints about the extraordinarily slow pace of results.
Results are incredibly slow coming in. However, initial results are very encouraging ! PPP candidates and independents whom we have supported/ engaged with seem to be doing well! Let’s see what the final tally is in the end… ✌️
— BilawalBhuttoZardari (@BBhuttoZardari) February 8, 2024
The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) held a protest earlier today in response to allegations of result manipulation and tampering in Sindh’s PS-22 constituency.
JUI-F head Rashid Mehmood Soomro claimed, “Our [the JUI-F’s] candidate was made to lose via deliberate change of results.”
He declared, “We have won by [margin of] 7,000 votes as per the Form 45s in our possession,” and he demanded new elections in some areas.
As the nation waits for results that were delayed after the polls ended, Moody’s Investor Service had expected on Friday that the prompt release of the results would ease the nation’s current uneasy situation.
“This is crucial for the country that is facing very challenging macroeconomic conditions, with a fragile balance of payments, weak growth, and high inflation,” stated Grace Lim, an analyst with Moody’s in Singapore.
I am a dedicated student currently in my seventh semester, pursuing a degree in International Relations. Alongside my academic pursuits, I am actively engaged in the professional field as a content writer at the Rangeinn website.
