Rigging Free Electronic Voting System for Pakistan Proposed

Shahbaz Baig

MPA (400+ posts)
پاکستان میں ہونے والے حالیہ انتخابات میں کئی حلقوں میں دھاندلی پر بڑے پیمانے پر تنقید کی گئی ہے۔ مبصرین کا کہنا ہے کہ کم از کم 10 فیصد – یعنی 7 ہزار – پولنگ اسٹیشنوں پر ووٹرز پر اثرانداز ہونے کے لیے دھاندلی کی گئی۔

جعلی ووٹ، ووٹرز کو دباؤ میں لینا، بیلٹ بکس اور پیپرز کی عدم دستیابی اور اسی طرح کے دیگر مسائل ملک کے مختلف علاقوں سے سامنے آئے۔
اچھی امید رکھنے والے ماہرین کا کہنا ہے کہ مجموعی طور پر انتخابات بہترین ہوئے اور انتخابات کو 100 فیصد خامیوں سے پاک بنانے کا کوئی طریقہ موجود نہیں، خصوصاً جب وہ اتنے بڑے پیمانے پر ہوں۔
البتہ پاکستانی نژاد آسٹریلوی رضوان ذاکر اس سےاختلاف کرتے ہیں۔وہ سمجھتے ہیں کہ ووٹنگ سسٹم کو ٹیکنالوجی کی جدت اور نادرا کے جمع کردہ کارآمد ڈیٹا کے استعمال کے ذریعے خامیوں اور نقائص سے مکمل پاک کیا جا سکتا ہے۔
رضوان دعویٰ کرتے ہیں کہ الیکٹرانک ووٹنگ سسٹم (EVS) کو اگر نافذ کیا جائے تو یہ پیپر بیلٹ پر مبنی موجودہ نظام سے کہیں زیادہ موثر، سیر حاصل، سستا اور دھاندلی سے پاک نظام ہوگا۔
یہ امر قابل ذکر ہے کہ انڈونیشیا نے حال ہی میں پائلٹ کی حیثیت سے ای-ووٹنگ سسٹم کا تجربہ کیا ہے اور اب تک مثبت ردعمل ظآہر کیا ہے۔


الیکٹرانک ووٹنگ سسٹم کس طرح کام کرے گا؟

طریق کار یہ ہوگا:

  • ایک شخص پولنگ اسٹیشن پر جائے گا
  • اس کا کمپیوٹرائزڈ قومی شناختی کارڈ سویپ کیا جائے گا
  • اس کے انگوٹھے کے نشان لیے جائیں گے
  • انگوٹھوں کے نشان اور شناختی کارڈز کوتصدیق کے لیے اسی وقت ملایا جائے گا
  • تصدیق کے بعد ووٹر ٹچ بیلٹ اسکرین کے ذریعے اپنا ووٹ کاسٹ کرے گا


ای وی ایس بیک اینڈ پر


ووٹر کا شناختی کارڈ سویپ ہوتے ہیں اس کی تمام تفصیلات سرور پر لوڈ ہو جائیں گی (جو پولنگ اسٹیشن پر ہوگا)، جس کی ووٹر کے انگوٹھے کے نشان کے ذریعے تصدیق کی جائے گی۔ ایک مرتبہ ووٹر کی تصدیق ہو جانے کے بعد ٹچ اسکرین بیلٹ خودکار طور پر ایکٹیویٹ ہو جائے گا۔ یہاں ووٹر اپنی مرضی کے انتخابی نشان کو منتخب کر کے ووٹ دے سکے گا۔

ووٹ کا یہ اندراج براہ راست الیکشن کمیشن آف پاکستان کے سرور پر ہوگا۔
رضوان نے کہا کہ انگوٹھے کے نشانات کی شناختی کارڈ سے ملنے کی تصدیق پانچ سیکنڈوں کے اندر ہو سکتی ہے۔
علاوہ، ٹچ بیلٹ اسکرین صرف اسی وقت ایکٹیویٹ ہوگی جب ووٹر کی تصدیق ہو جائے گی، اور یہ صرف ایک ووٹ قبول کرے گی، یوں کسی ایک انگوٹھے کے نشان یا شناختی کارڈ پر زیادہ ووٹ دینا یا مرنے والے افراد کے شناختی کارڈوں پر ووٹ دینے کا امکان ختم ہوجائے گا۔
الیکٹرانک ووٹنگ سسٹم کو محفوظ بنانا

الیکشن کمیشن آف پاکستان کی طرح الیکٹرانک ووٹنگ سسٹم کو بھی ایک غیر جانبدار ٹیم کی جانب سے بنانا اور چلانا چاہیے۔ سسٹم اچھی ساکھ رکھنے والے اداروں کی جانب سے آڈٹ کیا جانا چاہیے اور تمام سیاسی جماعتوں کو اس سسٹم کی تیاری میں شامل کرنا چاہیے۔
نیٹ ورک اور مشین کی سطح کی سیکورٹی نادرا کی جانب سے فائروالز کے ذریعے کی جا سکتی ہے۔
الیکٹرانک ووٹنگ سسٹم کے فوائد


  • الیکٹرانک ووٹنگ سسٹم پرنٹنگ اور روایتی بیلٹ پیپر اور بکس کی تیاری، حوالگی اور اسے سنبھالنے کے طریقوں کے مقابلے میں کم اخراجات کا حامل ہوگا۔
  • ووٹ گننے کی رفتار تیز اور بروقت ہوگی
  • دھاندلی اور جعلی ووٹ بھگتانے کا مکمل طور پر خاتمہ ہو جائے گا
  • رد ہونے والے ووٹوں کی تعداد کو بڑے پیمانے پر کم کیا جا سکتا ہے
ممکنہ چیلنجز


  • الیکٹرانک ووٹنگ سسٹم کے بارے میں عوامی اعتماد شاید اتنا زیادہ نہ ہو
  • الیکٹرانک ووٹنگ سسٹم کے استعمال کے حوالے سے پریزائیڈنگ افسران کی تربیت
  • موجودہ سیاسی نظام ایسے عیوب سے پاک سسٹم کے نفاذ کی اجازت نہیں دے گا۔

Recently held election in Pakistan saw massive criticism due to various rigging incidents in different constituencies of the country. Observers said that at least 10 percent – or 7,000 – polling stations were reportedly rigged to influence the voters.
Bogus votes, pressurizing voters, in-availability of ballot boxes, papers and various other similar problems were reported in different parts of the country.
Experts – the optimistic ones – are of the view that overall elections went well and there is no way of making election 100 percent fool-proof, especially at this magnitude.
However, Rizwan Zakir, a Pakistani Australian, differs. He believes that voting system can be made flaw-less by leveraging the technological advancements and valuable data that NADRA has gathered so far.
Rizwan claims that an Electronic Voting System (EVS) – if deployed – will be more efficient, productive, cost effective and rigging free as compared to current manual, paper-ballot based voting system in the country.
It merits mentioning here that Indonesia recently tried an E-Voting system as a pilot and received positive reviews.
How Electronic Voting System Will Work?

Very simple: Here would be the process:

  • An individual will go to polling station
  • Will get his/her CNIC swapped
  • Record his/her thumb-impression
  • (Thumb-impression and CNIC cards will be matched to verify voter in real time)
  • After Verification, voter will cast his/her vote though Touchscreen Ballot Screens
  • And that’s it.
EVS at the Back End

At the time of CNIC swapping (of the voter) all the details will be loaded to the server (hosted at polling station), which will then cross-verify the voter with thumb impression. Once voter will be confirmed, the touch screen ballot will get activated automatically. Here voter can go and cast his/her vote by inputting his/her choice.
Input of vote will be directly relayed to ECP servers in real time.
Rizwan said that cross checking of thumb-impression with CNIC data can be completed with-in 5 seconds.
Moreover, touch-sensitive ballot screens will get activated only after verification of voter, and will accept only one vote, hence eliminating any chances of multiple voting or voting on the CNICs of dead people.
Securing Electronic Voting System

Like Election Commission of Pakistan, the electronic voting system should be developed and maintained by non-partisan team. System should be audited by reputable firms and every political party should be taken on-board for the deployment of such system.
Network and machine-level security can be maintained by NADRA through firewalls.
Benefits of Electronic Voting System


  • Electronic Voting System will involve lesser cost, as compared to printing, shipment and handling of conventional ballot papers and boxes.
  • Vote-counting will be really quick and in real-time
  • Chances of rigging and bogus voting will be fully eliminated
  • Number of invalid votes can be reduced by a great deal
Possible Challenges


  • Trust level in masses for Electronic Voting System might not be very high
  • Training of presiding officers for using the Electronic Voting System
  • Current political system will not allow the deployment of such as flaw-less system

Source
 

United4Pak

Minister (2k+ posts)
What IF someone somewhere decides to allocate The majority vote to person electronically? All he has to do is in the computer move the winning candidates number to the person of his choice. In electronic voting it is much easier to manipulate the result because their is no physical proof. Does anyone of you remember Bush junior vs Al Gore presidential election?
 

mrk123

Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
What IF someone somewhere decides to allocate The majority vote to person electronically? All he has to do is in the computer move the winning candidates number to the person of his choice. In electronic voting it is much easier to manipulate the result because their is no physical proof. Does anyone of you remember Bush junior vs Al Gore presidential election?

People don't realize this part that its the humans who design, build, manage and operate these machines and these concerns are even real in the developed countries where these machines are used. In a place like Pakistan where corruption is rife and from all indications the elections are rigged at a very high level then these fears about electronic machines are very real.

There are some examples that electronic voting system is being used in developing world. I believe I heard that Brazil uses it very effectively.

What I would be concerned about is the cost and logistics associated along with concerns for security and fraud prevention when there is no paper trail.
 

miafridi

Prime Minister (20k+ posts)
If you implement it, you will be able to see the faulty areas and then improve those areas.
 

optimistic

Senator (1k+ posts)
I knew about this whole system quite long ago but i was always wondering and confused that you will still need honest people to guide illiterate awam for using touch screen, and this is where rigging may come into play by making poor illiterate people choose the wrong election symbol..
 

Hadith

Minister (2k+ posts)
Leave the way as it is, just do one thing, seal the ballot papers in a machine which gets command from computer to issue a ballot paper, then the rest of process can be handled by laws.
example
I go to polling station, they swipe my card and computer verify the information, a machine attached to that computer has sealed ballot papers counted numbered and sealed by election office, or RO or who ever.once info is verified i sign against my name and picture and machine issues me a ballot paper, I take that mark it and put it back in box.
Now how to deal with counting error and corruption,?
solution
everytime a ballot paper is issued from machine it puts a secret bar code on ballot. A counting machine is designed to get the feed of ballot paper verify it against the code that if the issued ballot is from same place and then infrared read the mark on candidate's symbol, and store it in memory the whole system count and report the result to a election city where journalists and other agencies are allowed access ,for each polling station count can be shown live and recorded in the election cell, each halqa will have its booth in election city monitored by recording and media.this way it can show that which polling station got how many votes cast and what is the split between candidates. and total of all halqas should give the result
Total number of ballots should never increase the number of registered voters in the polling booth,if all are used good, if not it can be found that who did not voted and signatures can be counted against ballot papers.This way we will have physical evidence also, and polling officers will not have open access to ballot paper machine remains sealed and stay sealed unless problem arises and need to be opened in court.If polling staff is found guilty of fraud in any way he/she lose job and go to jail for min of 15 years.plus the candidate who was favored will pay for the rerun of election cost. in severe corruption against candidate like firing, and any illegal activity against polling staff candidate and his/her family is out of elections for 20 years
 
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United4Pak

Minister (2k+ posts)
People don't realize this part that its the humans who design, build, manage and operate these machines and these concerns are even real in the developed countries where these machines are used. In a place like Pakistan where corruption is rife and from all indications the elections are rigged at a very high level then these fears about electronic machines are very real.

There are some examples that electronic voting system is being used in developing world. I believe I heard that Brazil uses it very effectively.

What I would be concerned about is the cost and logistics associated along with concerns for security and fraud prevention when there is no paper trail.

Electronic voting is definitely cheaper as you all need system computers and screens. They can be re used too but fraud prevention is a major issue. You cannot implement it and after finding the fault become a laughing stock in the world and lose another 5 years.
 

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