muhammadhafeezmalik
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The subject of grant of right of vote to Overseas Pakistanis remained under consideration in the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) since long. ECP had established a Directorate for Overseas Voting in its Secretariat at Islamabad. It is constantly involved in consultation and research on the subject. The consultative process was not only confined to the local stakeholders i.e. Political Parties, Civil Society Organizations and Media, but is also extended to the associations of Overseas Pakistanis.
ECP has been working to devise the mechanism for granting the voting rights to the Overseas Pakistanis since 2015. In order to develop a workable, effective and transparent mode of voting for Overseas Pakistanis, the Honorable Election Commission had constituted a Special Committee on Overseas Voting to conduct the Feasibility Study of Overseas Voting, In addition to this the ‘Sub-Committee of Parliament on Electoral Reforms’ headed by Dr. Arif Alvi, the then MNA also desired that ECP may conduct Mock exercises for Overseas Voting by using the following two modes, Postal Ballot (Online Re-registration, Voting through Postal Ballots), IVR (Interactive Voice Response) Tele Voting, Voting through Telephone. However, the life cycle of Mock Poll using Postal Ballot and IVR was not successful and the reports were also shared with the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms.
The campaign to register overseas Pakistanis for internet-voting in the by-polls held on 14th October, 2018, evoked a lukewarm response, with only 7,419 (1.1% of the total voters)expatriates out of the total 632,000 registering to avail the facility offered to them for the first time in the country’s electoral history. Only 6332 voters cast their vote by using this facility on polling day.
The process of registration of overseas Pakistanis from the 37 constituencies where by-elections are to be held on Oct 14, 2018 had started on Sept 1 and came to a close on Sept 18, 2018.
According to a statement released by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the website for the overseas voters remained functional 24/7 throughout the registration process and did not face any technical problems.
The ECP said only voters holding national identity card for overseas Pakistanis (NICOP) and machine readable passports (MRPs) were able to register to vote. This way, as many as 632,000 overseas Pakistanis from the 37 constituencies settled in 177 countries of the world were eligible to vote through the internet — which is 84 per cent of the total overseas Pakistanis from the given constituencies.
Under the plan, the over 7,400 registered voters will be sent voter pass (password) between Oct 10 and Oct 14 on the email address mentioned in their online application for registration, through which they would be able to cast their votes on election day.
On polling day, the voter shall log in to the website using his username and password and enter the voter pass emailed to him earlier. This will direct the voter to his registered national and provincial assembly constituencies to enable him to cast the vote.
A designated list of candidates of the selected constituency would then be displayed by the system and the voter shall select the election symbol of the candidate to cast his vote. Upon successful submission of the vote, a “confirmation” message would be displayed on the screen.
The ECP had already uploaded on its website separate video tutorials in Urdu and English languages as well as step-by-step help materials to guide voters through the registration and voting process.
An advertisement campaign had been launched through media to create awareness about the facility of internet voting made available for the overseas Pakistanis and the embassies and consulates of Pakistan had also been involved in the campaign.
There was another pilot project held in Lahore's constituency PP-168 by ECP of the i-voting system developed to enable overseas Pakistanis to exercise their right to vote from abroad. As many as 4,667 overseas Pakistanis spread across more than ten countries were eligible to register themselves for voting in PP-168 by-election.
A paltry three (03) overseas Pakistanis registered their i-votes for the upcoming by-elections in Lahore's PP-168 constituency — much to the dismay of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and National Database and Registration Authority's (Nadra) officials. The PMLN candidate won the election by the margin of just 687 votes, the 4,667 overseas Pakistanis could play a pivotal role in that election.
ECP has been working to devise the mechanism for granting the voting rights to the Overseas Pakistanis since 2015. In order to develop a workable, effective and transparent mode of voting for Overseas Pakistanis, the Honorable Election Commission had constituted a Special Committee on Overseas Voting to conduct the Feasibility Study of Overseas Voting, In addition to this the ‘Sub-Committee of Parliament on Electoral Reforms’ headed by Dr. Arif Alvi, the then MNA also desired that ECP may conduct Mock exercises for Overseas Voting by using the following two modes, Postal Ballot (Online Re-registration, Voting through Postal Ballots), IVR (Interactive Voice Response) Tele Voting, Voting through Telephone. However, the life cycle of Mock Poll using Postal Ballot and IVR was not successful and the reports were also shared with the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms.
The campaign to register overseas Pakistanis for internet-voting in the by-polls held on 14th October, 2018, evoked a lukewarm response, with only 7,419 (1.1% of the total voters)expatriates out of the total 632,000 registering to avail the facility offered to them for the first time in the country’s electoral history. Only 6332 voters cast their vote by using this facility on polling day.
The process of registration of overseas Pakistanis from the 37 constituencies where by-elections are to be held on Oct 14, 2018 had started on Sept 1 and came to a close on Sept 18, 2018.
According to a statement released by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the website for the overseas voters remained functional 24/7 throughout the registration process and did not face any technical problems.
The ECP said only voters holding national identity card for overseas Pakistanis (NICOP) and machine readable passports (MRPs) were able to register to vote. This way, as many as 632,000 overseas Pakistanis from the 37 constituencies settled in 177 countries of the world were eligible to vote through the internet — which is 84 per cent of the total overseas Pakistanis from the given constituencies.
Under the plan, the over 7,400 registered voters will be sent voter pass (password) between Oct 10 and Oct 14 on the email address mentioned in their online application for registration, through which they would be able to cast their votes on election day.
On polling day, the voter shall log in to the website using his username and password and enter the voter pass emailed to him earlier. This will direct the voter to his registered national and provincial assembly constituencies to enable him to cast the vote.
A designated list of candidates of the selected constituency would then be displayed by the system and the voter shall select the election symbol of the candidate to cast his vote. Upon successful submission of the vote, a “confirmation” message would be displayed on the screen.
The ECP had already uploaded on its website separate video tutorials in Urdu and English languages as well as step-by-step help materials to guide voters through the registration and voting process.
An advertisement campaign had been launched through media to create awareness about the facility of internet voting made available for the overseas Pakistanis and the embassies and consulates of Pakistan had also been involved in the campaign.
There was another pilot project held in Lahore's constituency PP-168 by ECP of the i-voting system developed to enable overseas Pakistanis to exercise their right to vote from abroad. As many as 4,667 overseas Pakistanis spread across more than ten countries were eligible to register themselves for voting in PP-168 by-election.
A paltry three (03) overseas Pakistanis registered their i-votes for the upcoming by-elections in Lahore's PP-168 constituency — much to the dismay of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and National Database and Registration Authority's (Nadra) officials. The PMLN candidate won the election by the margin of just 687 votes, the 4,667 overseas Pakistanis could play a pivotal role in that election.
