Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) along with NADRA recently launched I-voting for overseas Pakistanis but so far only 3,700 have registered for the By-Elections.
Registration started on 1st September and will end on 15th of the month but in the first 7 days the response was far below the expectation as only a small fragment was able to get registered.
Express Tribune reported that an estimated 525,000 overseas Pakistanis are eligible to participate in by-elections of 14th October but only 6,000 opened their online accounts on the official website of i-voting.
Government officials are hopeful that in the next few days more people will get registered. Others believe that government and ECP failed to motivate overseas Pakistanis to participate in elections.
According to media reports so far the system is working properly without any major technical issues on the website or in registration process. Around 150 people registered complaints but they were minor problems regarding PIN code or other details.
PTI government aims to allow overseas Pakistanis in General Elections of 2023 but it is said that the by elections of 2018 will serve as a major test for the process.
Other political parties such as PMNL and PPP opposed the decision and implementation of i-voting claiming that it may be used to manipulate the elections in the country.
I-Voting is the online voting solution which was proposed for Pakistani citizens living in foreign countries.
