Biometric machines won't be used in next general elections: ECP
According to the Election Commission of Pakistan, Biometric machines failed test in NA-120 by-poll
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Saturday announced that biometric machines will not be used for the next general elections scheduled to be held next year, reported Dunya News.
According to the ECP Secretary Babar Yaqoob, the result of experimental usage of biometric machines was unsatisfactory. “Approximately 12% votes couldn’t be verified, which is a worrying sign,” he said. However ECP will continue to use these biometric machines on experimental basis in by-polls. Their usage will be seen as early as the upcoming by-poll of NA-4.
ECP Secretary said that the total voters in the country are 970 million. “If 12% votes are not verified in the general elections, the number of unverified votes will shoot up to 116 million, which is not feasible,” he argued. He said that he doesn’t want people to raise questions about next general elections as well.
“In Kenya, recent general elections were held on the basis of biometric machines, but their court rejected them,” he said. He said that ECP has written a letter to the federal government to issue a notification regarding new demarcation of constituencies after recent population census.
