Parliamentary committee told: Biometric verification, use of EVMs quite possible in next elections

National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) has informed the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms on Tuesday that voters' biometric verification, use of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) would be possible in the next general elections (2018), sources said. Zahid Hamid chaired the in camera meeting of the sub-committee of electoral reforms on Tuesday. Chairman NADRA Usman Yousaf Mobeen gave a presentation to the committee on biometric use in the general elections.
The officials of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and Ministry of IT will be given presentation in the next meeting. In the previous meetings, the Election Commission and NADRA said that voters' biometric verification, use of EVMs and voting by overseas Pakistanis would not be possible in the next general elections (2018). Member committee raised a number of questions about the security of its data, if provided for online or offline verification of voters during elections.
A mock exercise was carried out by the ECP for voting by overseas Pakistanis in four countries, which had failed for a number of technical and legal reasons. However, the sources said, not even a single vote could be polled through telephone call whereas the postal ballots took six to 14 days to reach the ECP in Islamabad through diplomatic channels via the Foreign Office.
The mock polling was conducted at the Pakistani embassy in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), High Commission in London (UK), and Consulates in New York (US), Dubai (UAE), Manchester, Bradford and Glasgow (UK). The ECP had written a letter to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to prepare a feasibility report on the issue of granting voting rights to overseas Pakistanis and its mechanism. The UNDP had been asked to submit its recommendations to the ECP as quickly as possible. The committee also gave a final shape to some 13 constitutional amendments to carry out electoral reforms.