Elections requests over 500 tablets for elections

In a bid to better facilitate the sharing of voting results during the upcoming Presidential Elections directly with the Election Commission, the Ministry of Finance and Treasury has requested for over 500 electronic tablets.

During previous elections, the voting results were sent to the Commission via fax and netbooks but for the 2018 elections, authorities have decided to use tablets instead.

The Finance Ministry also confirmed that orders for the tablets had been placed by the President's Office earlier in July.

As all fixed telephone lines and fax lines assigned to government offices and independent institutions have been cut off with the exception of a single fixed line per office, results of the upcoming election cannot be faxed to the commission as had been done before.

The government-issued telephones and fax lines had been cut off in an attempt to reduce costs earlier this July, under the directive of the President's Office.

Currently, government offices use E-Government or ‘Gems’ to communicate and send documents between different offices and institutions instead.

Elections Commision member Ahmed Akram said that the commission has specifically requested the Finance Ministry to finance the 550 tablets for the coming election.

However, details pertaining to where or from which country the tablets will be sourced from, nor whether suppliers have already been contacted, have not been revealed.

Adding that "it will not be different than before," Akram further stated even if results may be transferred via tablets, vote counting and other mechanisms will remain the same as with previous elections.

The commission has stated that tablets, printers and other necessities will be sent to the voting centres across the country and that the commission is ready to explain how the tablets will be utilized, should the parties have any concern regarding the matter.

A total of 491 vote boxes will be placed for the election in a country of 263,000 eligible voters.

Although the opposition continues to raise concerns regarding the fairness of upcoming presidential elections, both the government and the elections commission have vehemently denied the allegations.