• The election committee decides whether to use voting machines, Shibli Faraz said.
• The Minister revealed that 1.8 million votes were lost during the manual voting process.
• It is said that electronic voting machines are the best solution for fair elections.

Islamabad: Federal Minister of Science and Technology Shibli Faraz said on Wednesday that electronic voting machines (EVMs) cannot be hacked, so they are the “best” solution for election manipulation.

Faraz said at a press conference in Islamabad that whether to use EVM depends on the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), and the final decision lies with them. He also demonstrated how EVM works.

The “best” solution for EVM

Faraz explained that EVMs cannot be “hacked” because they are not connected to the Internet or rely on Bluetooth or the operating system.

He declared that EVM was the “best” solution for manipulation, and said that with their help, elections can become transparent.

The Minister of Science and Technology asked other political parties to test the EVM and satisfy itself.

read more: PM Imran Khan uses simulated voting to test the electronic voting machine

Faraz further claimed that the EVM is responsible for the confidentiality of votes. Emphasizing “transparency”, he said that EVM will not waste any votes, because the machine itself verifies voters through the voting list, and voting by the machine only takes two to three minutes.

Faraz expands on how the EVM works, explaining that the machine can only be used by one voter once, thus reducing the possibility of additional votes.

read more: How feasible is it for Pakistan to use electronic voting machines during elections?

Faraz added that the manual voting process will result in at least 3% of votes being wasted, but EVM will prevent this from happening. He further added that no member of the election committee would know where the machine will be placed, thus avoiding the chance of tampering with the machine.

The minister concluded that it is important to elect “real” candidates and that the election is transparent.

Last month, Faraz told the media that these machines will be unveiled soon.

“This machine will be provided to opposition parties and relevant stakeholders […] It can be tested anywhere,” the science minister said in a casual conversation with reporters in Islamabad.