Theme/Relevant Ministry:

DEMOCRACY/ ELECTIONS:
Election Commission of Pakistan; PM Office; Federal Cabinet and Cabinet Division; NA & Senate

Project Brief:

This paper is an attempt to structure the ongoing debate around Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and election technology in Pakistan and ground the discourse in research, international best practices, and expert guidelines. EVMs have been used in different countries since the 1960s and have proved highly controversial. A concerning trend has emerged over the last two decades in those various developed countries, including Ireland, the Netherlands, and Germany, have phased out or terminated their EVM deployments over concerns of voter privacy and election integrity. At the same time, deployment of EVMs in developing countries, such as India, Brazil, Venezuela, and Philippines, has yielded mixed results. There is therefore an urgent need to decipher this trend such that we may maximize the gains of these technologies and avoid mistakes made by other countries.

Moreover, revolutionary new technologies have emerged in recent years which enable citizens and observers to verify and audit election results. Technologies such as end-to-end verifiable voting and risk limiting audits are being developed and piloted in the West, but there is as such, little recognition of the unique challenges in adapting these methodologies in developing countries like Pakistan. There is a need to make these technologies accessible to election stakeholders and to precisely identify the critical research gaps and challenges we need to address in Pakistan. This paper draws together these complementary lines of inquiry and provides a comprehensive vision.

The accompanying roadmap spells out recommendations in the form of concrete detailed steps that stakeholders need to take. This paper provides a framework for such efforts and is supported by a detailed roadmap which describes the key steps that stakeholders need to take to successfully deploy EVMs and election technology in Pakistan.

Public Policy Relevance:

This research identifies the research and policy challenges of adapting Verifiable Voting in Pakistan and devise a comprehensive roadmap to introduce verifiable voting technology in Pakistan. The findings of this research are important contribution towards a more transparent, inclusive, & efficient electoral system in Pakistan.

Status:
COMPLETED 100%

Final Research Report, Policy Brief and Journal article can be downloaded from the link: https://pide.org.pk/rasta/publications-cgp-1-0/