Expired ID card holders eligible to vote in February 8 election

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Monday said the people holding expired computerised national identity cards (CNIC) would be eligible to cast their votes in the upcoming general elections, scheduled for February 8.

According to the Election Act 2017, the national identity cards issued by NADRA shall be deemed valid for registration as a voter for casting vote in an election, notwithstanding the expiry of its validity period.

There are at least 128 million registered voters eligible to cast their vote on February 8.

Talking to the media in Islamabad, ECP spokesperson Haroon Shiwarni informed that the electoral body has completed the printing of 260 million ballot papers for all the 859 constituencies across the country.

He added that a control room based on a private network has been set up to monitor the electoral process, which will operate without internet services.

The electoral body has also developed a result compilation mechanism called "Election Management System (EMS)", an automated and modern management system developed for the tabulation, transmission, compilation and tabulation of election results.

The programme will be utilised at a total of 90,675 polling stations with 276,402 polling booths for more than 128 million voters who will be electing their representatives on February 8.