Electoral system to go digital: ECP - Pakistan

[Kabir Panthi]

Even as political parties in India are getting increasingly impatient to get rid of the EVMs, the controversy regarding India’s paperless Direct-recording electronic (DRE) voting machines seems to have had no impact on our neighbors who are rushing into electronic voting. Or, looking at it from a different perspective and uncharitably, is the heat generated by the EVM controversy in India and the recent expose’ of how their vulnerabilties can be exploited propelling these countries to expedite their plans for e-voting.

Welcome Bangladesh and Pakistan to the club of e-voting nations. Neither of them has an enviable record in democracy and in maintaining integrity of election verdicts. According to sources, Afghanistan may be the next country to take the e-route.

Let me briefly illustrate their e-voting plans before offering my views on the subject.

BANGLADESH

Bangladesh has indigenously developed its own electronic voting machines. Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology (BUET) has developed these systems. From their description, these voting machines are somewhat similar to our EVMs in design and contain a control unit, ballot unit and a display unit. The units are run by batteries and connected to each other.

Election Commission of Bangladesh is piloting these voting machines in Chittagong City Corporation polls being held on June 17. The Commission is planning to hold next general elections in the country due in 2013 with the help of EVMs.

PAKISTAN

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has also decided to go electronic with its voting. ECP is currently undertaking a feasibility study and intends to issue a final report by July this year after consultations with political parties and civil society, and a demonstration by interested EVM suppliers.

A number of EVM vendors have been called to make demonstrations towards the end of June in the presence of political parties and other stakeholders.

A press release from the Election Commission of Pakistan dated June 2, 2010 states, “In India EVMs have been used in pilot projects since the 1980’s, and have more recently been introduced nationwide for all national and state elections. Bangladesh is also in the process of developing its own EVM, as is Thailand. However, the use of EVMs has not been without its problems elsewhere in the world. Several countries have rejected the use of EVMs entirely, despite using them previously, including Ireland, the Netherlands and Germany. The United States has largely moved towards paper ballot systems with electronic counting technologies.”

The press release added, “The ECP established an EVM Feasibility Study Committee in December 2009….This Committee has since been looking at such issues as; the strengths and weaknesses of the current system of paper balloting in Pakistan; the objectives to be achieved in changing the current system of paper balloting; the advantages and disadvantages of EVM technologies, and how they might meet the specific needs of Pakistan; the budgetary implications of using EVMs; and, the legal implications of using EVMs.”

Press Release
**

Indian EVMs, touted as an unmatched success story by the Election Commission of India, are black boxes that have rendered Indian elections non-transparent, unverifiable and unauditable. This sort of voting process seems to fit the bill in many countries with a fragile democratic set up.

Most countries in Europe and the United States with much more robust democratic structures seem unconvinced of the utility of such systems. Despite the widespread problems reported in the U.K. elections a couple of months ago with paper ballots, they remain unconvinced of the use of DRE voting machines in polls.

It is just a matter of time before the EVMs make an exit from the Indian scene. But the Election Commission of India’s contribution would be felt for a long time as these dubious democracies, “inspired” by the Indian experience, continue the e-voting tradition for several decades to come in our region.

I can be reached at nrao@indianEVM.com

GVLN Rao Blog Blog Archive Dubious Democracies Bangladesh and Pakistan to adopt “India-like” EVMs

 

[SurvivoR]

Its all a plan to rig the next elections on a massive scale.

 

[tinguzzz]

Features of Indian EVM

* EVMs are powered by an ordinary 6 volt alkaline battery manufactured by Bharat Electronics Ltd., Bangalore and Electronic Corporation of India Ltd., Hyderabad. This design enables the use of EVMs throughout the country without interruptions because several parts of India do not have power supply and/or erratic power supply.
* Currently, an EVM can record a maximum of 3840 votes, which is sufficient for a polling station as they typically have no more than 1400 voters assigned.
* Currently, an EVM can cater to a maximum of 64 candidates. There is provision for 16 candidates in a Balloting Unit. If the total number of candidates exceeds 16, a second Balloting Unit can be linked parallel to the first Balloting Unit and so on till a maximum of 4 units and 64 candidates. The conventional ballot paper/box method of polling is used if the number of candidates exceeds 64.
* It is not possible to vote more than once by pressing the button again and again. As soon as a particular button on the Balloting Unit is pressed, the vote is recorded for that particular candidate and the machine gets locked. Even if one presses that button further or any other button, no further vote will be recorded. This way the EVMs ensure the principle of "one person, one vote".
* The EVMs cannot be pre-programmed to favour a party or a candidate because the order in which the name of a candidate/party appears on the balloting unit depends on the order of filing of nominations and validity of the candidature, this sequence cannot be predicted in advance. Further, the selection of EVMs for polling stations is randomized by computer selection preventing the advance knowledge of assignment of specific EVMs to polling stations.

 

[Kabir Panthi]

 

[Awesome]

This opens a sea of problems and a hellhgate for backlash from political powers on poor people who promise their votes in exchange for a square meal or a small amount of money. It establishes a system that is extremely, extremely vulnerable to abuse from electoral candidates.

The EC has to weigh whether your need to verify the authenticity of your vote is more important or whether it is important to maintain invisibility and thus protect citizen's privacy. Also note the additional cost of maintaining such a database, especially since it will most probably be a de-centralized one in a country (like Pakistan and India) where it will be difficult to transfer data over a secure connection from remote areas and announce results quickly as well.

Your need to seek accountability is far less important. I'll trust the EC, the dozens of observers and transparency bodies to establish the fairness of the elections rather than opening a possibility of abuse. Also, the proposal of voting lists with pictures from NIC seeks to remove many possibilities.

The thing is, if I can bribe my way to a database administrator to tell me who did the voter Sparklingway voted for, then I can bribe him to run this query as well

"update votes set vote_count = 1000000 where candidate = 'ASIM'"

Which will effectively give me 1000000 votes.

Taking the Indian example again, each time the vote is cast, The voter gets tagged as already voted and the candidate vote count goes +1.

Now if I had the access to the db, I can just update the vote count all together. So if your db is breached, you can do a whole lot more damage than get who voted for whom.

Introduce encryption, split and distribute encryption keys. That way all the people would have to be bribed for the system to fail and you get an extra check.

The person going home will log in with a secure id over an encrypted SSL link to the website.

They do not use a database. Perhaps you understood the system wrong or I am interpreting you wrong. The memory inside each EVM stores its own 3840 votes. They are transferred to the control machine by physical access and this is done at the central polling station in the presence of the presiding officer.

Any repository of data can be referred to as a database, perhaps not a relational database, but definitely a database. Now the read-write method of the database would be different but there are always APIs that allow the core system software to trigger a vote count.

This system will result in two problems:

1) Announce the wrong result. For example if the system is totally decentralized and is never consolidated in a single area. The polling officer can announce any result. So some degree of repository has to be built at some stage and the announcement should come from the center.

2) As a voter you go to the voting booth in Karachi. The voter walks in signs everything, gets the ink, and then goes to a booth and casts the vote and walks out thinking all has been done. In the next room the real voting machine is working where the vote is cast instead to the preferred party.

Thats why audit by the voter himself is necessary.

Of course there is a third problem too, something that happened during the 2008 elections in Karachi. People went to vote, MQM activists were conducting the polling, they registered the voter as voted and then told them "Ok apka vote hogaya, aap jayen" later the vote was cast by the MQM activist.

They won 100000 to 10000 votes.

I think with the strong security principles in place, a fully computerized and auditable system can be worked upon and with maturity the trust in the system will increase.

 

[Kabir Panthi]

There is no way a purely electronic system can be secure. Insiders have unlimited access to the machines. Even any encryption software used can have trap-doors.

 

[sparklingway]

EC likely to go for e-voting machine

Friday, June 25, 2010
By Mumtaz Alvi

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission (EC) has invited five world vendors on June 28-29 to demonstrate their products on the option of electronic voting machine (EVM), already in vogue in about 14 countries while 30 others are planning to adopt it, The News learnt here on Thursday.

A source privy to a meeting chaired by the EC Secretary Ishtiak Ahmad Khan here at the Control Room of the EC Secretariat told this correspondent that during the session, four committees gave their input on the proposal.

“Apparently, these committees of experts have given a go-ahead, pointing out legal, legislative, technical and financial implications of the EVM procedure,” the source maintained. He said the EC was keen on moving at a faster pace to implement its vision, which included among other matters, preparation of error-free voters lists afresh within six months and consideration and adoption of the EVM option.

Four committees of experts were constituted to furnish their separate reports on the pros and cons of the EVM option, already in practice in the region in India. These panels presented their output before the meeting.

When contacted, the EC Spokesman Muhammad Afzal Khan confirmed the electoral body having arranged a two-day exhibition and said as many as 15 political parties, having representation in parliament had been invited to be part of it. “We have invited presidents and secretary generals of these parties for the event,” he noted.

Moreover, he added representatives of certain NGOs, experts from the TIP and the National Institute of Electronics (NIE) and some universities had also been extended invitation. To a question, the spokesman said they were also looking into the possibility of manufacturing the EVM indigenously that has already been used and made in the neighbouring country.

“We are strategising the computerization of electoral process following the course of India, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. It may be a lengthy process, spanning over a decade or more, but it is inevitable to reform the system,” the secretary had said while briefing media on his visit to Bangladesh and about meetings with the election commission heads of South Asian states.

Australia, US, Brazil, Japan, Canada, France, Russia, UAE, Peru, Kazakhstan, Estonia, Austria, Venezuela and Switzerland are using this technology. The EC has made significant progress on the feasibility study and a final report would be ready by July-end, after consultation with political parties and civil society. Five vendors who had provided information on their products, agreed to visit Islamabad to demonstrate their products.

The spokesman said in India, the EVMs had been used in pilot projects since 1980s and more recently been introduced nationwide for all national and state elections. Moreover, Bangladesh was also in the process of developing its own EVM and so was Thailand.

 

[EgO Boy]

Guy's dont worry i am working on DHANDALI VIRUS it will be for sale month before next Election's.

 

[Hyde]

Electoral system to go digital in 5 years​

Updated at: 2303 PST, Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Electoral system to go digital in 5 years ISLAMABAD: After getting backing of political parties having representation in the Parliament, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Tuesday decided to switch over to electronic voting system in five years and introduce Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) which would approximately cost about Rs 2 billion.

This was announced by Secretary Election Commission Ishtiak Ahmed Khan while addressing a press conference after conclusion of two-day demonstration on feasibility study of the electronic voting machines in the country.

Fifteen leading political parties, having representation in the parliament, representatives of election-related non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and experts from National Institute of Electronics (NIE) and some universities and civil society organisations attended the demonstration.

"The ECP is charged with the fundamental responsibility of holding elections free, fair and transparent elections in the country and digitalization of the election process would be a giant leap step in the this direction," the secretary ECP said.

He said the ECP vision has been illustrated in the ECP's recently unveiled Five-Year Strategic Plan, envisaging 15 goals and a total of 129 objectives. The use of technologies can play a hugely important role in implementing this plan, he added.

Referring to the decision to prepare computerized electoral rolls and the use of EVMs, he said the ECP during past few weeks has taken two major decisions for ensuring free, fair and transparent elections in the country.

To a question he said first of all a pilot project would be launched and EVMs would be used for election in one or two constituencies.

He said a committee for electronic voting has been constituted , which would provide guidance on switching over to electronic voting system.

He said it has also been decided to send delegations to neighbouring countries, which are already using EVMs, to observe the process of electronic voting.

Responding to a query, he said the first priority of the ECP would indigenous manufacturing of the EVMs. It was not a difficult job.

To another question about cost of the electronic voting machine, he said in India it costs Rs 25,000 and "we can also produce similar machines".

He further said senior PPP leader and Minister of Water and Power Raja Pervaiz Ashraf attended the meeting on Tuesday and assured that his party would fully support the ECP initiative to go digital.

Dispelling the impression that it would be difficult for illiterate voters to cost their vote through an electronic machine, he said this system was more easier and simple as compared to the present electoral system.

About safety of the data in the machines, he said the data in the machine could not be tampered with. The Indian CEC told him in a recent meeting in Dhaka that not a single complaint of data tampering has been received there, he added.

To another question he said India took 22 years to completely shift to the electronic voting system. The ECP plans to complete the process in five years, he added.

 

[Kompromat]

Pakistan Made Digital vote casting system being Tested.

 

[Hyde]

already posted black blood

read the second page of this thread

http://www.defence.pk/forums/nation...electoral-system-go-digital-ecp-pakistan.html

 

[Kompromat]

Zaki its an update - 23 days later .

Mods please merge both threads - thanks.

 

[Hyde]

Zaki its an update - 23 days later .

Mods please merge both threads - thanks.

I am talking about last post Sir,

only published only 4 hours ago

http://www.defence.pk/forums/964083-post24.html

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

Good idea finger prints and retina scanners don't lie and its very easy to catch theives - Great move by Pakistan Gov Impressive move

 

[Capt.Popeye]

Even as political parties in India are getting increasingly impatient to get rid of the EVMs, the controversy regarding India’s paperless Direct-recording electronic (DRE) voting machines seems to have had no impact on our neighbors who are rushing into electronic voting. Or, looking at it from a different perspective and uncharitably, is the heat generated by the EVM controversy in India and the recent expose’ of how their vulnerabilties can be exploited propelling these countries to expedite their plans for e-voting.

Welcome Bangladesh and Pakistan to the club of e-voting nations. Neither of them has an enviable record in democracy and in maintaining integrity of election verdicts. According to sources, Afghanistan may be the next country to take the e-route.

Let me briefly illustrate their e-voting plans before offering my views on the subject.

BANGLADESH

Bangladesh has indigenously developed its own electronic voting machines. Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology (BUET) has developed these systems. From their description, these voting machines are somewhat similar to our EVMs in design and contain a control unit, ballot unit and a display unit. The units are run by batteries and connected to each other.

Election Commission of Bangladesh is piloting these voting machines in Chittagong City Corporation polls being held on June 17. The Commission is planning to hold next general elections in the country due in 2013 with the help of EVMs.

PAKISTAN

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has also decided to go electronic with its voting. ECP is currently undertaking a feasibility study and intends to issue a final report by July this year after consultations with political parties and civil society, and a demonstration by interested EVM suppliers.

A number of EVM vendors have been called to make demonstrations towards the end of June in the presence of political parties and other stakeholders.

A press release from the Election Commission of Pakistan dated June 2, 2010 states, “In India EVMs have been used in pilot projects since the 1980’s, and have more recently been introduced nationwide for all national and state elections. Bangladesh is also in the process of developing its own EVM, as is Thailand. However, the use of EVMs has not been without its problems elsewhere in the world. Several countries have rejected the use of EVMs entirely, despite using them previously, including Ireland, the Netherlands and Germany. The United States has largely moved towards paper ballot systems with electronic counting technologies.”

The press release added, “The ECP established an EVM Feasibility Study Committee in December 2009….This Committee has since been looking at such issues as; the strengths and weaknesses of the current system of paper balloting in Pakistan; the objectives to be achieved in changing the current system of paper balloting; the advantages and disadvantages of EVM technologies, and how they might meet the specific needs of Pakistan; the budgetary implications of using EVMs; and, the legal implications of using EVMs.”

Press Release
**

Indian EVMs, touted as an unmatched success story by the Election Commission of India, are black boxes that have rendered Indian elections non-transparent, unverifiable and unauditable. This sort of voting process seems to fit the bill in many countries with a fragile democratic set up.

Most countries in Europe and the United States with much more robust democratic structures seem unconvinced of the utility of such systems. Despite the widespread problems reported in the U.K. elections a couple of months ago with paper ballots, they remain unconvinced of the use of DRE voting machines in polls.

It is just a matter of time before the EVMs make an exit from the Indian scene. But the Election Commission of India’s contribution would be felt for a long time as these dubious democracies, “inspired” by the Indian experience, continue the e-voting tradition for several decades to come in our region.

I can be reached at nrao@indianEVM.com

GVLN Rao Blog Blog Archive Dubious Democracies Bangladesh and Pakistan to adopt “India-like” EVMs

MONUMENTAL HUMBUG!