Overseas Pakistanis’ lack of interest in i-voting disappoints authorities

Only three expatriates register their votes online for Lahore’s PP-168 by-poll

ISLAMABAD: Lack of interest shown by the Pakistani diaspora living abroad in i-voting has dampen spirits of the officials of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) as only three expatriates registered themselves for upcoming PP-168 by-election in Lahore.

This will be the second time that i-voting will be used on experimental basis in the by-election, scheduled for December 13.



The three individuals, who registered their votes online before expiry of the deadline on Tuesday, were among the 4,677 voters belonging to the mentioned constituency residing in more than 10 different countries. The registration process lasted for 15 days – from November 12 to 27.

Under the ECP’s prescribed criteria, each overseas Pakistani having National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistanis (NICOP), Machine Readable Passport (MRP) and whose name was in the voters list for the by-poll in the Lahore constituency, was eligible for registration as a voter.

Earlier in September, only 7,419 Pakistanis living abroad had registered themselves with the ECP to vote in the by-elections for 37 constituencies of national and provincial assemblies held on October 14.