ECP 'SMS voters’ verification service may break World Record

Guinness World Records nominates ECP for launching biggest system for over 83 million voters.

ISLAMABAD: Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has been nominated for launching the “World’s Biggest Voters SMS Service” of over 83 million data density and for over 100 million mobile users in the country in ‘one go” by the Guinness World Records.

According to ECP officials the Guinness World Records has issued a Membership ID and Claim ID to the commission on Thursday. The process of announcement of result will take four to five weeks.

Pakistan has now become the World’s First Biggest Voters Verification SMS Service with a voter density 83.28 Million. The system was introduced throughout the country for over 110 million mobile users in one go.

ECP claimed that the technology and resources used for the service is an indigenous effort.

According to Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), there are over 111 million mobile users in the country with great potential and a dense teledensity.

By using this service that was launched on February 29, eligible voters send their Computerized National Identity Card (CNIC) number on ‘8300’ and in response the register voter gets information regarding their electoral address, electoral Area name, Block Code, Tehsil/District and Serial Number.

In an effort to make authentic computerized electoral rolls the ECP has put on display draft electoral rolls at 55,000 display centers across and asked the general public to register their complaints at these centers before final lists were published.

Talking to The Express Tribune, an ECP official said that in the next phase the commission would also display polling station information by end of May this year, when the Final Electoral Rolls would be finalized and launched via SMS.

The new digital wireless system using mobile SMS has completely replaced the manual slip system for assigning serial number and name of the voter on every slip or ‘parchee’.

It is expected that the introduction of this system will replace the old ‘parchee’ system and hence help reduce costs. It would also assist the public in avoiding political parties agents' influence, who in the name of providing facilitation, use to influence the public's vote.

Very few countries, have so far, introduced this SMS based voter information, mostly available in limited areas on experimental basis, including New Zealand, Australia and India and few US state counties who have introduced it in some areas.

Previously, Malaysia had the biggest voters’ SMS verification system for 15 million voters.

In total, there are 5.6 billion mobile users in the world, wherein Pakistan ranked number 9 on the list, last year, but this year it was expected to rise to number 8 with 111 million mobile users.