Islamabad:

Pakistan President Arif Alvi on Saturday expressed disappointment over the postponed election results and said the country would not be able to use electronic voting machines (EVMs) during the February 8 general elections, Geo News reported. will face the current crisis. .

He said the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP)’s new Election Management System (EMS) had failed despite the commission’s lofty demands.

Notably, the election watchdog has yet to release preliminary results for each constituency nearly seventy-two hours after polls closed.

“Had the EVM been there today, my dear Pakistan would have been spared from this crisis,” President Alvi posted on social media platform X.

President Alvi recalled the fight for EVMs by the previous PTI-led government and said the entire effort, which had more than 50 meetings during the presidential tenure alone, was abandoned.

“Remember ‘our’ long fight for the EVM. The EVM had paper ballots that could be counted individually by hand (as is done today), but it also had a simple electronic calculator/counter to record each The voting button that was pressed,” he said.

The president said if machines were used, the vote totals for each candidate would be announced and printed out within five minutes of the closing of polls.

Remember “our” long fight for electronic voting machines. The EVM had paper ballots that could be counted individually by hand (as is done today), but it also had a simple electronic calculator/counter that recorded each vote button pressed. The total number for each candidate will be…

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

On February 10, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) staged a protest in Sindh PS-22 constituency against alleged manipulation and tampering of results.

“our [JUI-F’s] Candidates were forced to lose. [deliberate] The result has changed,” said JUI-F leader Rashid Mehmood Soomro.

“we won [margin of] According to Geo News , he said while calling for new elections in several constituencies, based on the 45 forms we have, 7,000 votes.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) called for nationwide protests on Sunday to protect the sanctity of the vote amid delays in Pakistan’s election results as independent candidates took the lead in 100 seats.

According to reports, the decision was taken after the party’s core committee met and announced “peaceful protests” across the country to protect the sanctity of the vote.

The meeting also discussed the election results and future courses of action.

The core committee also discussed issues related to affiliation with specific political parties.

Important decisions were taken during the meeting, which the party said will be implemented in consultation with PTI founder Imran Khan.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)