Like millions others, I too am dejected and upset about the election results. I think PTI was robbed of at least 50 NA seats through massive rigging, particularly in Pujab. I think PTI had actually won the votes, but was deprived of victory during counting and reporting process. I thought about all this and have come to the conclusion that electronic voting is absolutely necessary to defeat the election fraud. I have come up with a methodology which I think would stop rigging forever. Please convey this to senior PTI leadership so they can discuss this with ECP. Here is my proposal:
1. The NADRA card should have ‘hand recognition’ & ‘iris recognition’ information embedded in it.
2. The voter goes to polling station and hands over NADRA card to the polling agent.
3. The polling agent inserts card into machine connected directly to NADRA database
4. The agent asks voter to insert hand into ‘hand recognition’ machine (alternatively the agent scans eye iris with hand held probe).
5. The voter’s hand imprint (or iris scan) is matched with NADRA database to verify identity of the voter.
6. Once voter is verified, the machine prints a ballot paper with bar code which has voter information (address, gender, age etc.). Once a ballot paper is printed, the system blocks printing of another ballot paper with the same ID card.
7. The polling agent hands over the NADRA card and the bar coded ballot paper to the voter.
8. The voter goes to polling booth, and inserts the ballot paper in the polling machine.
9. The polling machine automatically reads the bar code and presents on the screen a list of candidates and election symbols based on address embedded in the bar coded ballot paper. This way a voter located away from his home constituency can vote without physically travelling to his home constituency.
10. The voter selects the candidate name/symbol on the touch screen for NA seat.
11. The polling machine now presents another list for PA candidates. The voter selects PA candidate for PA.
12. Once the two selections are made by the voter, the machine uploads these selections to centralized Election Commission database. The machine also prints selections on the ballot paper and ejects the paper.
13. The voter folds the ballot paper and drops into the ballot box.
14. The voter choice is simultaneously recorded electronically in ECP’s system as well as on a ballot paper as a physical evidence.
15. As soon as the polling time is over, the preliminary results can be announced immediately, since all voting information has already been uploaded into ECP system.
16. The final results can be declared once ballot papers are counted and reported to ECP. The ballot paper count should match with electronic count.
Admittedly, it is expensive, time consuming, and it needs infrastructure development and staff training, but once implemented, it will stop rigging forever. There will be no need of pre-printing of ‘perchis’, since it will be printed on the spot, and votes counted online without human interference. My guess for estimated cost to implement this system is around $200 M (US), but I believe that it be worth the cost.