The use of biometric voter verification machines in NA-120 by elections will be carried out as a pilot project and will not slow down the voting process as these machines have capability to verify each voter within 15 to 18 seconds, a spokesperson of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), said. The spokesperson said the voters will get verified bio-metrically only after casting their votes.
The ECP had earlier arranged a session to impart training about the usage of Biometric Machines to the polling staff of NA-120. According to ECP spokesperson, the trained staff has been deputed at 39 out of 220 polling stations of NA-120 where as many as 100 biometric machines would be used for the polling process. The trained polling staff would also apprise the voters about the usage of these machines.
It is pertinent to mention here that this will be Pakistan's first biometric verified polling and this technological revolution is to bring a change in the country's electoral system. This system is expected to do away with the rigging charges usually political parties come up with during and after the polling/elections.
Despite Pakistan's population reaching 200 million and grave concerns on transparent polling, electronic and biometrically verified voting hasn't been used here yet. Each machine costs Rs 77000 only and is a state of the art product with a Hardware Security Module and sensors to protect the data received from Nadra.
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