The website set up by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to for I-voting by overseas Pakistanis sustained multiple cyber-attacks, reported a private media outlet.
Voting for the by-election on 35 national and provincial assemblies commenced at 8 am across the country, with more than 300 candidates, including some political bigwigs, in the running.
Quoting sources, the media outlet said that the I-voting website sustained 10,000 cyber-attacks simultaneously. The NADRA authorities were, however, able to thwart the attack and the website from going down.
The website did not go down even once in seven hours, according to sources.
ECP’s IT department Director General Muhammad Khizar Aziz said that the website had been loading slowly due to a lot of traffic and that was usual in the case.
The ECP website is working properly, he added.
Over five million registered voters — about 2.3 million women and almost 2.7 million men — will exercise their right to vote in the by-polls. It is noteworthy that the overseas Pakistanis will be voting for the first time in the by-polls.
Seats up for grabs comprise 11 from National Assembly, 11 from Punjab Assembly, nine from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and two each from Sindh and Balochistan.
