The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday started the process of issuing passcodes to overseas voters who have been registered through i-voting for the October 14 by-polls, DawnNewsTV reported.

According to an official, who requested anonymity, the passcodes are being sent through email and the process will take two to three hours. With assistance from the National Database and Registration Authority, the ECP will send 7,364 registered overseas voters passcodes that would enable them to log in and cast their votes in the by-polls on Sunday.

The passcodes will be valid from 8am to 5pm Pakistan Standard Time, the official said.

Though a total of 7,419 people had registered as eligible voters on the i-voting website, 55 people will not be able to vote since by-polls in two constituencies, PP-294 and PP-87, have been cancelled after an unopposed election.

The ECP had launched the Overseas Voting System on Sept 1 for by-elections in 37 constituencies for both national and provincial assembly seats.

Out of 790,000 Pakistanis living abroad, of which 631,909 were eligible for i-voting, only 7,419 people registered to vote out of 11,000 accounts created on the website. The remaining 3,581 accounts could not be registered as they failed to complete the two-step process. The registration period lasted for 17 days.

Voting procedure for overseas Pakistanis

On polling day, the registered voters will log into the website using their credentials and enter the 'voter pass' [passcode] emailed to them by the ECP. This will direct the voter to their registered national and provincial assembly constituencies to enable them to cast the vote.

A designated list of candidates of the selected constituency will be displayed by the system and the voter shall select the election symbol of their candidate to cast their vote. Upon successful submission of the vote, a “confirmation” message will be displayed on the screen.