The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Thursday announced to start voter registration process of overseas Pakistanis from September 1 till September 15 for the upcoming by-election in the country. The by-polls on 11 National Assembly and 26 provincial assembly seats would be held on October 14.
The overseas Pakistanis whose votes have been registered in the electoral lists in the constituencies where by-elections are to be held would be eligible to get themselves registered for the vote.
Pakistanis who live abroad with a machine readable passport (MRP) and a National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistanis (NICOP) will be eligible for registration. The Foreign Office and Nadra will run awareness campaigns with the help of embassies in this regard.
On August 17, the Supreme Court allowed Pakistanis for the first time living abroad to vote in the by-election. As per the Supreme Court's directive, the results of I-voting will remain segregated from the basic balloting process, so that it could not affect the election results in case of any dispute.
If the pilot project of overseas Pakistanis voting in the by-elections ends successfully, it will lead to the court granting expatriates the right to vote in the general election.
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said in one of its recent briefings to the media that around 9.2 million Pakistanis are living abroad and the government will formulate a policy to benefit from their skills and capital.
Meanwhile, the ECP published a final list of candidates for the presidential election. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's Dr Arif Alvi, Pakistan Peoples Party's Aitzaz Ahsan and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rahman are in the run for the presidential election to be held on September 4.
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