ECP unlikely to use modern techniques in NA-120 by-polls

Plan to use biometric machine receives setback

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) plan to use the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and the Biometric Verification Machines (BVM) during this month’s by-elections at Lahore’s NA-120 has had a setback as fingerprint data of thousands of voters of the constituency is missing.

The ECP had announced to use the EVMs and BVMs for test run at the NA-120 constituency from where Kulsoom Nawaz, wife of deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif, is contesting after Sharif’s disqualification by the apex court on July 28. The by-polls for the seat are scheduled for September 17.



For using the modern technology, the ECP had asked the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) to provide fingerprint data of all the voters residing in the constituency. NADRA last month said it had provided all the necessary data to the ECP.

However, the ECP has now found that data of thousands of voters is missing. “After detailed examination and analysis, it was found that biometric fingerprints data of 29,607 persons out of 3,21,786 voters of NA-120 is missing” an ECP official revealed.

He said the ECP has asked NADRA to immediately provide the missing fingerprints, adding that otherwise the ECP might not be able to execute the project.

“The ECP has procured 100 biometric and 150 EVMs for this test run in the constituency,” he said, adding that for NA-120, the ECP plans to use the EVMs and BVMs as a pilot project. Results will be compiled on conventional voting though.



Earlier, the polls supervisory body was not be able to test biometric thumb verification machines at the July 9 by-polls at the Sindh Assembly’s PS-114 constituency as NADRA had failed to share with the ECP data of the constituency.

The ECP had announced to test biometric machines for voters’ verification in PS-114 Karachi as a pilot project and to submit its report to the parliamentary committee on electoral reforms which was working on new the election laws.

The Election Bill 2017, commonly known as electoral reforms bill, has been passed by the National Assembly and is now under consideration in the Senate. It has the provision to shift to modern technology gradually in order to make the election process transparent.