Here’s How the Online Voting System Will Work in Pakistan

Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), in collaboration with National Database & Registration Authority (NADRA), has developed an Online Voting System for Overseas Pakistanis. Using this system, Overseas Pakistanis can now cast their vote for their home constituencies.

Chairman NADRA Usman Mobin gave a video and multimedia presentation to a three-member bench of Supreme Court at Islamabad. Chief Election Commissioner Sardar Raza Kahn and officials of Ministry of Foreign Affairs were also present.

Usman Mobin told the SC bench that this voting system is fully digital. Overseas Pakistanis can cast their votes without leaving homes by using any internet connected device like PC, laptop, smartphone or tablet. This vote casting will be done as per the Voters List. To cast a vote, an overseas Pakistani who wishes to use the system must have:-

  1. A National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistani
  2. A Machine Readable Passport
  3. A valid Email Address

Usman Mobin told the bench that overseas voters must first register themselves with the Online Voting System in order to cast their votes. The online voting system is integrated with the web portal of ECP and NADRA. To facilitate voters the system can be used in Urdu and English.

To register, a voter must log on the website (www.overseasvoting.gov.pk) and create an account using an email address and a mobile number. After logging in to the website using the account, select registration. The system will first determine the eligibility of the voter and will ask to enter following details.

  • 13-digit Unique National Identity Card Number printed on NICOP Card
  • The Issuance Date of the NICOP Card
  • Machine Readable Passport Number
  • And the Tracking ID Number printed on Machine Readable Passport

If the voter is eligible, the system will ask two verification questions from the data to confirm the identity of the voter. Upon successful verification, the system will send a notification to the registered email address of the voter, confirming their registration as an “Overseas” voter.


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Subsequently, the system will also de-list the Overseas Voter from the local Voter list of their home constituency. Vote casting process is as under:

  • Before the Election, the system will send a Voter Pass to the Voter on their registered email address.
  • On Election Day, the Voter will log in to the website using their account and select “Vote Now”.
  • Using the Voter Pass, the Voter will select the National Assembly or Provincial Assembly Constituency and cast their vote for the candidate of their choice.

Once the Voting time is over, Election Commission of Pakistan will enable the reporting portal of the Online Voting System.

The Returning Officers, using the reporting portal, will be able to view and print results of the Online Voting System respective to their constituencies.


  • According to the Express Tribune IT experts have rejected this system because people can easily fall victim to phishing. Besides non of these details they ask you for are secret. Your NICOP number, mother’s name etc. are not secrets. You can’t authenticate a person’s identity on the basis of public information.

    IDK why banks and government organizations think you can authenticate a person based on such things. If this was a reliable mechanism for authenticating a person’s identity there would have been no need to force mobile phone SIM owners to authenticate themselves using biometrics.

    • Exactly this. One point I’d like to add to this is that, with this system in effect, anyone with access to NADRA database can commit voter fraud at a scale that’s unheard of and achieve landslide victories; given the state of corruption and bribery in this country, this idea isn’t outlandish and people like Nawaz Shareef and Zardari would be willing to pay a fortune just to get elected over and over again. Anyone who has spent a week using a computer can poke countless holes in this system. ECP is either downright idiotic or very corrupt.

      • The system will be under the supervision of ECP. So if one thinks that ECP is compromised then there is no hope left. Overseas voting or no overseas voting, the org responsible for conducting the voting needs to be trusted one way or the other.

    • SC has given all the IT experts 15 days to assess the system from a security perspective and submit their report. It is true that no system is 100% fool proof and the fact that we are experimenting this system for the first time in our country also means there will be a few things needed to be adjusted. But that is how every process evolves.

  • yet again shameful act by ProPakistani to delete my comment. How immature and cheap way of protecting childish posts.

  • NADRA and MOI is under Govt control. How can you ensure that data of overseas Pakistanis is not released to current government in power to hijack the registration process for normal citizens. If they can transfer vote in bi-elections how will you prevent this.

    How many expat out of 5.8 have the email address. The process should be independent of the citizen computer literacy.

    During registration, finger print or facial detection be added to ensure registration process is not manipulated. At the time of voting , the voter country IP address should be matched with country of stay mentioned on NICOP.

    Returning Officer (RO) should not get the reporting in the end, ballot should be printed immediately when overseas vote is caste and added to respective constituency ballot box. The count can then be compared with final report.

  • I think NADRA can easily provide biometric devices to all PAKISTANI embassies in each country, where we can go and cast our vote after biometric authentication. The said approach will not be feasible. Only biometric identification is the solution.

    • The problem isn’t the provisioning of biometric devices (although it is not easy as well). The problem is that people won’t travel hundreds of miles to caste their vote in the embassies. Here in Pakistan, no one bothers to travel a few hundred meters even.

  • They require Nicop and Pakistani passport to vote. Most dual citizens living abroad don’t keep their Pakistani passport as they can visit Pakistan visa free by using foreign passport along with nicop. So they won’t be able to vote using this mechanism. Expats in middle eastern countries could vote as they have Pakistani passports but dual nationals in US and Canada for example can’t vote because they don’t keep Pakistani passport.

    If your vote is registered in your home constituency and you have valid nicop, then what is the reason to ask for valid Pakistani passport ? Nicop has the foreign address of holder.

    It sounds like this requirement of valid Pakistani passport is only to deprive majority of voters in Europe, USA and Canada of their voting right.

    • Agree some how that not all Pakistani carry both NICOP and machine readable passports. But some of them like me have both at one time here in Canada. They may asking for both to minimize the fraud. They still working to find out the best way of voting for overseas Pakistanis, lets hope for the best.

    • Salams, I think the rules say machine readable passport — not Pakistani machine readable passport.

      Otherwise, the rules would have said NICOP “or” Pakistani machine readable passport, as a NICOP is only issued to a dual-national, as per my knowledge.

  • Good Morning everyone
    can someone tell me about online voting system what musst i do ? please

  • Voting should be only for Pakistani Nationals with Single Country Loyalty.

  • Gents, is it possible to give vote from UAE could any ONE give me guidance
    MUKHTIAR HUSSAIN SHAR


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