Pakistan Polls 2024: EVMs could have prevented result delay crisis, says President Alvi

Pakistan President Arif Alvi said that Pakistan might have averted the crisis caused by delays in announcing election results if ‘Electronic Voting Machines’ (EVMs), a system strongly endorsed by PTI during their tenure, were implemented. “Remember ‘our’ long struggle for Electronic Voting Machines. EVM had paper ballots that could be counted separately by hand (like it is being done today) BUT it also had a simple electronic calculator/counter with each vote button pressed. Totals of every candidate would have been available & printed within five minutes of the closing of poll,” he wrote on X. “The entire effort that included more than 50 meetings at the presidency alone was scuttled. Had EVMs been there today, my dear beloved Pakistan would have been spared this crisis,” he added.

Remember 'our' long struggle for Electronic Voting Machines. EVM had paper ballots that could be counted separately by hand (like it is being done today) BUT it also had a simple electronic calculator/counter of each vote button pressed. Totals of every candidate would have been…

— Dr. Arif Alvi (@ArifAlvi) February 10, 2024

According to the latest data from the Election Commission of Pakistan, the counting of 253 seats has been completed. Independent candidates, a vast majority of them backed by Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, were at the top with 99 seats.

Pakistan’s general elections were held on Thursday and the counting began soon after with the hope that the majority of the 265 contested seats in the National Assembly would be available by Friday morning. PTI-backed independence candidates won the most number of seats in the National Assembly as per the result’s announcement by the Election Commission of Pakistan.