Why is Pakistan asking a foreign supplier to build our electronic voting machines?


In one tender the ECP would ask vendors to bid for 300 biometric verification machines (BVM)

These will be tried out during the by-elections

If successful, the winning bidder will get an order for 300,000 machines for use in the general elections

The second tender is for 400 electronic voting machines (EVM) followed, in the event of a successful trial, by 300,000 machines for the general election

Both a BVM and an EVM are needed in each polling booth

The BVM will verify the identity of the voter and the EVM will register his or her vote

Elections in Pakistan are almost always marred by accusations of vote rigging

So the move toward an electronic voting system is very welcome

It will go a long way toward addressing the persistent demand by political parties to ensure clean, transparent, easily verifiable elections

But there are pitfalls

And if adequate measures are not taken to guard against them we may end up in worse shape than we are in now

The evaluation criteria for bidders in the ECP tender documents are skewed to favour foreign companies

It is almost impossible for Pakistani companies to qualify

This is a dangerous mistake

The nature and complexity of the electronic chips that are the heart of such machines allow the manufacturer to build into them so called ‘backdoors’

This is virtually undetectable circuitry that allows an external party to access the machine remotely via, for example, a mobile phone

Chips can contain up to two billion transistors

It is not difficult to put in a few that provide a ‘backdoor’ for an intruder

Given the sheer number of transistors in the chip, finding the few that operate secretly makes finding a needle in the proverbial haystack akin to a walk in the park

The danger then is that a foreign supplier can build in mechanisms that would allow outsiders to control EVM’s and hence influence the outcome of an election

The only sure way to ensure the machines are built right is to have them built in Pakistan by local companies under close supervision of the authorities

Both machines, the BVM and the EVM, can be made locally

In fact prototypes of both have been built and demonstrated by researchers at a university in Islamabad

Their intention is to license the technology to the many local firms now involved in manufacturing electronic devices

There is also an opportunity here

The cost of purchasing a total of 600,000 machines could reach up to one billion US dollars

If the machines were built locally this money would be spent inside the country giving our fledgling companies valuable experience

The whole electronics ecosystem in the country would benefit, young engineers and technicians would be trained and employed, and manufacturing companies could embellish their resumes enabling them to bid for business abroad

There is a need to be wary as well

When this kind of money is at stake, foreign companies have been known to resort to methods that take advantage of the relative poverty of those who sit on the other side of the table

The top government officer at the ECP has an annual income of the order of $35000

A ‘commission payment’ of a per cent or two of one billion dollars is a nest egg that few, in corruption ridden Pakistan, could resist

The mere fact that the tender documents are biased in favour of foreign companies suggests that some of these tactics may already be at work

Why else would the ECP seek to hamstring Pakistani companies? There are also reports that a US based company bidding for the business has already taken people involved in the process on an expenses paid foreign junket under the ruse of a ‘field trip’ to see their machines in operation

It is incumbent, not just on the ECP, but the whole nation to come together and reject absolutely foreign involvement in the manufacture and supply of these machines

The possibility that a foreign entity can influence our elections is a risk that we simply cannot take

This article originally appeared here

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Date:18-Jun-2016 Reference:View Original Link