Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has announced the introduction of an electronic voting system to ensure free and fair elections in the country.
In a televised address to the nation on Tuesday, Khan said that the electoral reforms are in the final stage and will be implemented after consultation with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
He added that he intends to roll out a system for overseas Pakistanis to allow them to exercise their right to vote.
“We also want to introduce a system for overseas Pakistanis so that they could cast their votes and become a part of the decision-making process in the country,” he said.
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Citing the example of the 2013 elections, Khan emphasized that all the parties had declared that the elections had been rigged.
PML-N alleged polls were rigged in Sindh, while PPP called the 2013 general elections as ‘RO elections’.
Khan also recalled how PTI’s demand to reopen four constituencies in the 2013 elections had been denied and noted that the 2018 general elections had been relatively less rigged compared to the 2013 general elections.
As many as 133 people filed rigging pleas in 2013 general elections, while in 2018 the number was reduced to 102.
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The PM maintained that the government had formed a committee under Pervez Khattak to investigate the rigging allegations in the 2018 elections and that the opposition leaders had skipped the committee’s meetings after the first session.
Khan called on the opposition parties to join hands in the legislations for the electoral reforms so that no party could raise allegations about the transparency of the polls in the future. He also urged the need for constitutional amendments to discard secret balloting and to allow Senate elections via a show of hand.
Finally, the premier thanked the people of Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) for their confidence in Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the recently concluded elections and vowed to fulfill all the promises that he had made during his address in Gilgit.
