ECP extends i-voting registration deadline by two days

Overseas Pakistanis can now get registered for October by-polls till September 17


Qadeer Tanoli September 14, 2018
Overseas Pakistanis can now get registered for October by-polls till September 17. PHOTO: EXPRESS/FILE

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) extended on Friday deadline for overseas Pakistanis to register their votes online for the upcoming by-polls.

The September 15 deadline has been extended by two days. The overseas Pakistanis will now be able to register for October by-polls till September 17.

Last month, the Supreme Court permitted the countrymen living abroad to cast their votes in the upcoming by-polls. A three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar and comprising Justice Umar Ata Bandial and Justice Ijazul Ahsan, directed the ECP to use i-Voting system as a pilot project to enable Pakistanis living abroad to cast their votes in the upcoming by-polls.

The ECP had announced that the by-elections for vacant national and provincial assembly seats will by held on October 14.

According to the ECP schedule, candidates can withdraw their nomination papers by September 15, while electoral symbols will be allotted to the contestants the next day.

Overseas Pakistanis give lacklustre response

The overseas Pakistanis will be given the right to vote through internet voting in 37 constituencies going for by-polls on October 14. It is estimated that there are 525,000 overseas Pakistanis from the areas falling under these constituencies who are eligible to vote if they get registered through internet-based system developed by National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra).

However, the initiative received a lacklustre response since only 3,700 voters had been registered till September 8.

According to sources in relevant quarters, more than 6,000 persons have opened their accounts on the web solution designed by Nadra and around 3,700 have already become registered i-voters so far.

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