General Election Through EVMs Will Cost More Than The Last Three Elections Combined

The next general election is estimated to cost the country approximately Rs424 billion if it is held using Electronic Voting Machine (EVM)s. This is roughly 1000 times more than the last three elections which cost the government a combined total of Rs28.6 billion.

The breakdown of the total cost was reported by Geo News. According to an estimate, around Rs230 billion will be spent on the EVM’s and related expenses while another Rs100 billion will be spent on making arrangements for overseas voters. Rs17 billion will be spent on the security arrangements.

According to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), 900,000 EVMs will be needed to conduct the upcoming polls while catering to approximately 133 million voters.

The cost of importing one EVM will be approximately $1500 (Rs262,500) however if the machines are locally manufactured then each will cost around $1000 (Rs157 billion). The cost of catering to one overseas voters will be around Rs 10,000 per voter.

Earlier this week, the ECP had said that it will not be pressured by the government into holding elections through Electronic Voting Machines (EVM)’s and will only do so after it is fully satisfied with the reliability of the system.

If the next election is conducted via EVM’s, it will be the biggest electronic voting exercise in the world with 120 million voters expected to participate.