Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Sunday introduced Biometric verification machines (BVM) in NA-120 by-polls, which confused the voters at many polling stations and slowed the polling process, Pakistan Today observed.
ECP had placed 100 BVM at 39 polling stations, out of the 220 polling stations – constituted for the NA-120 by-polls. According to ECP officials, at least 57,000 of voters were registered on these 39 polling stations. Earlier, ECP announced that on BVM machine booths at least 30,000 of voters would verified their identity.
The machines were installed on a trial basis to verify a specific number of voters registered at the said polling stations. ECP also announced that these machines would have no impact on the final result, while it also announced that these machines will not cause any delay or confusion on the election process. According to the announcement, voters had to cast their vote first and later they will have a choice to verify their registration or not.
Somehow, ECP managed to install the machines at the designated polling booths, but it could not fascinate the voters. The staff deployed at the booths seemed unaware of the ECP instructions as many voters preferred to get their biometric verification first. Biometric verification process, which was supposed to take a few minutes, took ages and due to that long queues were observed inside the polling booths. Majority of voters faced troubles while casting their votes due to lack of understanding of BVM, while many were misguided by their local representatives.
A voter, Shafique from UC 61, said that he was advised to get his verification before entering the booth to cast vote. This scenario later burdened the polling staff as they had to manage the rush. Early in the morning, the situation was under control as the voter’s turnout was low, but in afternoon, the numbers quickly rose and caused problems for the BVM staff.
At polling station number of 139, at least 10 people could not be verified through the biometric machine. A BVM staff member, while talking to Pakistan Today, informed that two of the people were old aged, but the rest could not be verified by the system. He said that he was unaware as to why the people could not be verified.
An ECP official, while requesting anonymity, told Pakistan Today that National Database Regulatory Authority (NADRA) has provided the data of selected people, about whom they were sure. He said that ECP already knew that a few problems might occur, but regardless of that, they announced that biometric machines would have no impact.
Before, the voters trend was to prefer the biometric machines, but later on the visits of ECP officials at polling booths, situation started changing on their advise to prefer in casting vote through ballot paper. A staff member at polling station number 21, situated in Government Higher Secondary School for Girls, Dav Samajh Road said that in morning there was rush at biometric machines but now they were asking people to cast their vote first. He said that after this announcement people were reluctant to get their verification through BVM.
Same situation was witnessed at women polling booths were it became hard to manage the voters present inside the booths. A voter Sana called this BVM system waste of time and money. Talking to Pakistan Today she said that the staff member tried to verify her through BVM in three ways but failed to do so. “First he took my thumb impression, then scanned my ID card and finally he attempted to take my retina but I wonder how it could not be verified,” she said, adding that if a mobile phone SIM seller can verify your identity then why ECP system failed to do so. She further said to move petition in court for this inconvenience.
