Govt, ECP officials meet to discuss utilization of electronic voting machine

ISLAMABAD (92 News) – The government and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) met to discuss utilization of the electronic voting machine, construction of field offices and project management at a cost of Rs one billion.

The Planning Commission deputy chairman met with the chief election commissioner and discussed the matter of storing database of voting machine.

It is decided that a staff comprises of 20 people will also be recruited. An amount of Rs20.23 million has been allocated for the construction of buildings and EVM store rooms.

ECP has sought permission from the commission regarding EVM storage plan, on which the commission has ensured approval of the plan till January or February.

The ECP will have to store the data of up to 400,000 voters. Moreover, till now funds have not been approved for the construction of field offices of ECP in the Punjab.

On the other hand, the ECP has announced to make an academy for the EVM project and the IT legal team will be increased for the purpose.

Meanwhile, the ECP has started making preparations and have started working on manpower, storage room and IT laboratories.

The Punjab government has decided to conduct the local bodies elections on voting machines. The clause regarding the Local Bodies Amended Act will be added. Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar has approved addition of the EVM clause to the Act.