In a first, Supreme Court allows overseas Pakistanis to vote in upcoming by-elections

[Arham_PakFan]

In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court on Friday permitted Pakistanis residing abroad to cast their votes in the upcoming by-polls to fill seats vacated by lawmakers who contested and won more than one seat in the July 25 polls, or for other reasons.

"Many congratulations to overseas Pakistanis today," said Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar, noting that it would be the first time that expat Pakistanis will be voting in a local election.

If the pilot project of overseas Pakistanis voting in the by-elections ends successfully, it will lead to the court granting expats the right to vote in the general elections.

The judgement was issued by a three-judge bench headed by the CJP which was hearing petitions at the apex court's Lahore registry filed by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan and others, seeking voting rights for overseas Pakistanis.

Justice Nisar directed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to cooperate with the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) and ensure proper arrangements in order to make the pilot project a success.

The court ordered that results obtained from i-voting (internet voting) by overseas Pakistanis will be included in the final results of the by-polls.

However, the i-voting results will also be stored separately and will be taken out from the final count in case a conflict arises, the CJP ordered.

"The right to vote of overseas Pakistanis has been accepted," Justice Nisar remarked, adding that it was now up to the ECP to implement the verdict and fulfil its duty of holding the elections.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1427545/i...rseas-pakistanis-to-vote-in-upcoming-by-polls

 

[Bewal Express]

I have read this before but nothing happens.

 

[Abdullah719]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">If you are an overseas Pakistani voter, this is how you ll be able to vote in future ! <a href="https://t.co/ATTWohoV1k">pic.twitter.com/ATTWohoV1k</a></p>— Maria Memon (@Maria_Memon) <a href="https://twitter.com/Maria_Memon/status/1031075937612378112?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 19, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[MenInG]

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan issued a voting schedule on Thursday for overseas Pakistani voters ahead of October 14 bypolls.

According to the ECP, the bypolls will be held on National Assembly’s 11 and provincial assemblies’ 26 constituencies.

Overseas Pakistanis will be able to register themselves on the ECP’s website from September 1 to 15.

The ECP said that the Foreign Ministry has been informed to aware the voters abroad through Pakistani embassies.

Earlier this month, the ECP officials said that in the bypolls overseas Pakistani voters will be able to vote through the internet.

Further, only those Pakistanis residing abroad with a machine readable passport (MRP) and a National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistanis (NICOP) will be eligible for registration.

On August 17, the Supreme Court allowed Pakistanis living abroad to vote in by-elections.

Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Mian Saqib Nisar had remarked that overseas Pakistanis would be participating in the by-election through i-voting, a system that allows voters to cast ballots from any computer connected to the internet anywhere in the world.

Further, the ECP on August 14 said pilot projects would be initiated for voting rights to overseas Pakistanis, which would not affect the results of by-elections.

The ECP said the decision on the use of i-voting would be made after several tests and pilot projects would be initiated in a limited area instead of an entire constituency.

It said the IVTF was formed on the orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, adding that the task force comprises officials of NADRA and the ECP's Law and IT Wings.

https://www.geo.tv/latest/209132-ec...s-pakistanis-registration-to-vote-in-by-polls

 

[Syed1]

Considering how quickly they set it up tells me they had the system completed and ready to go before the July 25th elections but the sitting caretaker government handpicked by PML-N and PPP did not give the go ahead as this would have meant an easy victory for PTI.

Had the plan been implemented before the general elections PTI would have easily managed another 10 or so more seats and wouldn't have to sit with the likes of MQM.

 

[hussain.r97]

If I knew this would happen, I would have renewed my NICOP card a month ago. I'm not sure if they will allow voting for someone with an expired card.

 

[MenInG]

https://www.dawn.com/news/1430291/ecp-launches-i-voting-website-for-overseas-pakistanis

KARACHI: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) launched its i-voting website on Friday for 7.9 million Pakistanis living abroad to enable them to cast their votes in the upcoming by-polls.

The ECP will be holding by-elections in 37 constituencies for both national and the provincial assemblies’ seats on Oct 14. The Overseas Voting System (www.overseasvoting.gov.pk) has listed these constituencies for voting on the website’s homepage.

Overseas voters will be able to register themselves on the ECP’s website from Sept 1 to 15 in the constituencies their vote is registered in. As per the i-voting schedule, the registration period starts on Saturday (today) and will end on Sept 15. However, the voter pass — a unique pass code provided by the system to the registered voters — will be issued between Oct 10-14. Votes will be cast online from 8am till 5pm (Pakistan Time).

Online registration of voters begins today, ends on Sept 15

Only those citizens who are already registered voters in Pakistan will be able to exercise their right to franchise.



Registration process
Eligible voters must complete a two-step process for online registration.

According to the ECP rules of overseas voting, eligible voters should possess a valid National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistanis (NICOP), valid Machine Readable Passport (MRP), and a valid e-mail address.

The overseas Pakistani voter desirous to cast his vote shall access the Overseas Voting System through the internet and create an account using these credentials: name, email address, password of his choice, mobile phone number (optional), and his country of stay.

A confirmation email of the created account would be then forwarded by the system to the applicant at his given email address and by clicking on the link therein the voter shall be prompted to provide the number of his MRP with its tracking identity and the NICOP number along with the date of its issuance.

Once the account is successfully registered, the second verification process would be initiated wherein random questions regarding voter’s identity information would be asked by the system and upon correct reply a message of “Successfully verified” would be displayed by the system. A unique “voter pass” will be emailed to the voter by the system which he would be required to provide on polling day to be able to cast his vote.

The ECP has issued strict guidelines regarding the confidentiality of the voter pass, as voters are required to not delete the email containing the pass code and maintain its secrecy to avoid breach of vote.

Speaking to Dawn about the ECP’s measures to ensure credibility and misuse of the pass code, commission’s spokesman Nadeem Qasim said the voter pass would be issued sometime close to the polling day to minimise potential risks. “The voter pass will be issued close to the polling day so that there is little time for breach or impersonation. Even after the voter has entered the voter pass, the system will undergo another verification process to ascertain voter identity,” he maintained.

Voting procedure
On polling day, the voter shall log in to the website using his username and password and enter the voter pass emailed to him earlier. This will direct the voter to his registered national and provincial assembly constituencies to enable him to cast the vote.

A designated list of candidates of the selected constituency would then be displayed by the system and the voter shall select the election symbol of the candidate to cast his vote. Upon successful submission of the vote, a “confirmation” message would be displayed on the screen.

The ECP has also uploaded on its website separate video tutorials in Urdu and English languages as well as step-by-step help materials to guide voters through the registration and voting process.

 

[hussain.r97]

So I just tried to register to vote. My expired NICOP isn't a problem, however, the most baffling thing is the fact that we need a NICOP AND a machine-readable Pakistani passport to vote. This basically means me and the vast majority of overseas Pakistanis living in the West will not be able to use the online voting system because most of us do not have or need a Pakistani passport since we have the passport of the country we live in.
[MENTION=138254]Syed1[/MENTION]

 

[Syed1]

So I just tried to register to vote. My expired NICOP isn't a problem, however, the most baffling thing is the fact that we need a NICOP AND a machine-readable Pakistani passport to vote. This basically means me and the vast majority of overseas Pakistanis living in the West will not be able to use the online voting system because most of us do not have or need a Pakistani passport since we have the passport of the country we live in.
[MENTION=138254]Syed1[/MENTION]

I have both a Pakistani passport and a NICOP but it was not letting me register for some reason. Perhaps there are no byelections in my constituency of NA-247. I seem to remember there being byelections in that constituency for the PS seat but still it won't let me register. I wanted to try out the system.

 

[hussain.r97]

I have both a Pakistani passport and a NICOP but it was not letting me register for some reason. Perhaps there are no byelections in my constituency of NA-247. I seem to remember there being byelections in that constituency for the PS seat but still it won't let me register. I wanted to try out the system.

There will definitely be bye-elections there considering that Dr Arif Alvi will leave his seat to contest in the Presidential Election. That is messed up, and you are not the first person telling me that they are having problems with the iVoting system.

 

[Gabbar Singh]

Anyone here register?

Deadline for overseas Pakistanis to register on i-voting website expires today

Fahad Chaudhry
The deadline for overseas Pakistanis to register on the i-voting website launched by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) expired on Monday 9am, DawnNews TV reported.

Out of 790,000 Pakistanis living abroad, of which 631,909 were eligible for i-voting, only 7,419 people registered to vote out of 11,000 accounts created on the website. The registration period lasted for 17 days.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1433480/d...to-register-on-i-voting-website-expires-today

 

[Syed1]

I tried registering and it did not let me, I know several people who had the same issue.

 

[DeadBall]

I have both NICOP and machine readable passport but when I tried to authenticate it gave this error.

 

[Syed1]

I have both NICOP and machine readable passport but when I tried to authenticate it gave this error.

View attachment 83978

Yup same error

 

[hussain.r97]

This system has been a total failure. First of all, asking for a passport on top of NICOP card shuts out a huge amount of overseas Pakistanis. Then, even people with passports are facing problems. When I last read, only 3,000 people have managed to register to vote.