Commission says draft of the Ordinance has been finalized. DESIGN: EMA ANIS
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) decided on Thursday to grant overseas Pakistanis the right to vote, to be implemented through a Presidential Ordinance, Radio Pakistan reported.
The decision was taken at a meeting headed by the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), Fakhruddin G Ebrahim.
Later, at a press conference, Secretary Election Commission Ishtiak Ahmad Khan said that the finalised draft of the Ordinance will be sent to the Law Ministry within two days.
A meeting of ECP will also be held on 25 April to finalise the security plan of the polling stations and is expected to be attended by representatives of the federal and provincial governments. Officials from the interior and law ministries are also expected to attend.
The ECP official said it will establish polling stations in consultation with the Fata administration to make voting easier for people who are internally displaced.
Khan said that ballot papers will be printed by the end of next week.
COMMENTS (22)
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No arrangements have been made so far for Overseas Pakistanis to vote ! EC and SC has made OPs 'orphans'
Is there any update about implimentation of above statement?
Still not sure they actually make it happen before 11th
Inviting non-residents to vote is like inviting fraud in the election process with the "remote control" in USA.;. If anything we should include minorities like Christens and Ahmadis to join the "mainstream".
Anybody knows about the voting scene in Canada??
@MAP - from what I've heard Singapore residents will need to go to KL embassy to cast their vote.
Please give vote to Imran Khan. Now or never..
Too little to late ! Such a decision should have been taken at least two months ahead of the voting day. With no mechanism in place, I highly doubt it will be of any benefit.
@Naj:
5 hours isnt too big a deal for your country. I will also need to drive for over 3 hours
Me and my wife shall be voting at the Pakistani High Commission in Singapore.
I guess we should all appreciate this positive step taken by ECP.
Lets not worry about system hacks and shortage of time. The important thing is to Vote, for Mr Khan.
How is it possible with less than a month left in election? How can they devise a system nd ensure transparency in such a short time.
ECP must arrange a software of e-voting for overseas Pakistanis. It would be easy for overseas Pakistanis to vote online rather going to embassies in big cities like London, Birmingham, New york, etc. Frankly, nobody have that much time to go to vote. They don't even have a day off during elections. ECP can outsource from Pakistan army. I wish that happens!
yes, you better do that. and make it voter friendly as well.
Yeah but will I have to drive 5 hours to the Pak embassy to cast my vote? That just sounds like I won't be voting. Voting should be easy for foreign Pakistanis, not hard to ensure a good turn out. But I guess the idea is not to have a good turn out bc most will vote for PTI and that's not ideal for the ruling class.
Game Over? PTI most organised party overseas time to deliver.
I have little faith in the Pakistani embassy staff here. They run various rackets including one of charging courier fee for sendind ID cards but then calling the person to come and collect it personally!
Ready to vote MQM, they will bring change to Karachi and finally we will get another province only for Mohajirs. Believe me if its gonna be electronic vote then good luck with election, Imran Khan will be winning because establishment will hack this system...Unless someone else hack it and sell it to Nawaz...
How exactly will this happen? How will overseas Pakistanis be informed about this? For example, the Italian embassy in the US and Canada sends letters to their overseas Italians instructing them how/where to vote? How will the masses be informed here. I am assuming you will be using the NADRA database to track citizens abroad?
Awesome. Yes We Khan - Yes We Can
Overseas Pakistanis MUST be given the right to vote to their favorite candidates.
ECP can make history.
Overseas Pakistanis contribute a lot towards their country, why should be they left from the election process as all eyes of overseas Pakistanis are looking at Pakistan now a days.
Sweet! Game changer.