Caretaker Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso. PHOTO: FILE
According to Khoso, the system will be ready in 10 days and thumbprints will be verified.
The Election Commission of Pakistan announced on Monday that, for the first time ever, votes will be verified by matching thumbprints with the National Database and Regulatory Authority’s database, despite the absence of any provision in electoral laws for this purpose.
ECP Secretary Ishtiaq Ahmed Khan and Chairman Nadra Tariq Malik jointly announced the decision.
Sources told The Express Tribune that Nadra had sent several letters to the ECP asking whether the commission wanted it to verify votes through thumbprints but there was no reply.
It had sent the first letter on June 19, 2012 and then on March 13, 2013 but there was no reply from the commission, sources added.
Now that the elections are over, that response has finally come.
COMMENTS (15)
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Do people here not understand that "elections" are pretty much the entire foundations of a democratic system.
If the people who vote do not hold the power, and the people who count the votes have all of it. We are better of with martial law. If you want this country to progress, the first step is ensuring that no one ever tries to rig an election.
By taking strict punitive actions against the transgressors. We can hopefully send a message to anyone thinking of rigging elections. And that is when Pakistan can finally prosper.
In Every third-world "democratic" country. The voting process is more or less a sham.
If only the caretaker govt had accepted ECPs demand to put army jawans at every polling station. Elections would've been far more clean!
And lastly, I hope we switch to electronic voting. We have five years to get there!
That's about $900,000 for technology that is getting built in only 10 days. Are you kidding me ? I can do the same thing for $50,000 with no problem. I am sure that a good chunk of this money will be found in Swiss Bank soon...
I wish someone filed a petition against this , this is too valuable money to be wasted due to a crying baby PTI .
And why odes NADRA need to purchase software ????
NADRA has its own development house and it also so called sold its software/system to other international bodies if I remember well.
Another game by NADRA to make more money.
Hamay tau apno ne loota , Gairon mai kaha dum tha ...
I am surprised why this system was not in place before the elections? despite the fact that NADRA, Government's own technology organ, pointed the loopholes in verifications when required. Was that not his duty to ensure it before the elections, or they just want the nation to accept this disputed elections. Ishtiaq, if he has some conscience, must resign for failure to conduct free and fair elections.
If this million dollar SW really purchased and implemented for verification, PTI would be declared winner on 5 - 6 NA seats ;)
NADRA's fingerprint database is crap to start with. What miracles can this expensive new software perform when it goes into the database and finds that most fingerprints stored there were not properly taken and hence the data is unusable. Where ever authorities are serious about taking finger prints (such as immigration department in the U.S.), an expensive piece of hardware and software is used to record all 10 finger prints. The thumb impression on a piece of paper is useless.
90 million for a software they might already have. i cant believe they dont already have such a software. what a waste of taxpayer's money.
Please do not waste on such useless things. We need electricty more than silly thumb verfications. When will our government get the priorities right if ever.
Abdul Waseem of NA-243 (192,000 votes) will be most unhappy with the arrangements... ;)
Things are happening pretty fast And change is coming. Pakistan Zindabad.
There's a 7,000 megawatt electricity shortage in Punjab alone and Rs 90 million is allocated towards verifying thumbprints for an election whose results will not change no matter how 'free and fair' you want it to be. -1 for commonsense.
I voted for PTI but if this is how the 'change' will come then I might regret my decision - fellow PTI supporters need to accept and be thankful for the impressive result their party has had in its first proper elections and work towards facing actual problems instead of being dharna crybabies.
Need a check that which Company is developed the software and Company's credibility.
Great, I hope now the fake votes will be taken out of Karachi. I am an overseas Pakistani and theres a good probability my vote was recorded already despite me not being able to come over to Karachi to vote.
I am from Karachi. I really hope this verification happens in a fair way and results are made public for the bogus votes specially in Karachi. We all will see the actual results.
which software are they purchasing?