ISLAMABAD – The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will start voter registration of overseas Pakistanis from Saturday (September 1) for the upcoming by-polls in the country.
The registration process, that would follow the first ever opportunity to be provided to the expats, will continue till September 15.
The facility will be limited to those overseas Pakistanis whose votes fall within the 37 constituencies where by-elections are scheduled to be held on October 14.
Moreover, only those Pakistanis residing abroad with a machine readable passport (MRP) and a National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistanis (NICOP) will be eligible for registration and casting their vote
The Foreign Office and NADRA will run awareness campaigns with the help of embassies in this regard.
The ECP registration is in line with the directives of the Supreme Court which had, on August 17, allowed Pakistanis living abroad to vote in by-elections.
Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Mian Saqib Nisar had remarked that overseas Pakistanis would be participating in the by-election through i-voting, a system that allows voters to cast ballots from any computer connected to the internet anywhere in the world.
The ECP said the decision on the use of i-voting would be made after several tests and pilot projects would be initiated in a limited area instead of an entire constituency.
Exclude I-voting results if found unreliable
The apex court has expressed the confidence that the mechanism of I-voting developed with an objective to grant the right to vote to 7.9 million overseas Pakistanis will be safe, reliable and effective enough to be used as a pilot project during the upcoming by-elections.
The apex court, however, directed the electoral body to exclude the votes cast by overseas Pakistanis from the official results if the commission was not satisfied about the integrity, safety and reliability of the internet facility.
