84pc turnout of e-voters witnessed in by-elections

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has revealed that 84pc of registered e-voters used their right to vote in the by-elections on Sunday (Oct 14).

As many as 5117 voters cast their votes for National Assembly while 1016 polled for their desired candidates for provincial assemblies.

According to reports, National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) said that it had foiled 1200 hacking attempts on the voting website that was created to facilitate the overseas Pakistanis to exercise their voting right.

For the first time, expats exercised their right to franchise in a by-election through i-voting.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in collaboration with National Database Registration Authority (NADRA) had developed a software for online voting for overseas Pakistanis.

The ECP had issued passwords to 7,364 overseas voters to use it for i-voting process for by-elections scheduled on Oct 14.

The ECP sent the passwords at the email addresses provided by the voters when they registered themselves for online voting. Overseas voters would be able to cast their votes using the password from 8am to 5pm (Pakistan Standard Time) on polling day.

It should be noted that only 7,419 expatriates out of the total 632,000 registered to avail the facility offered to them for the first time in the country’s electoral history.

According to the ECP, the voter shall log in to the website using his/her user name and password and enter the voter pass emailed to him/her earlier. This will direct the voter to registered constituencies of national and provincial assemblies to enable him/her to cast the vote.