Over 4.5 million citizens have so far verified their records of vote through SMS service which was launched from March 1 to facilitate citizens to verify their vote registration and particulars in the voters lists.
Deputy Chairman National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), Tariq Malik yesterday told APP that Mobilink, being the largest mobile phone operator is leading in term of checking vote verification through SMS, as around 1.44 million eligible voters have utilized its network.
Telenor is second as far as using the particular service is concerned. Around 1.282 million voters have so far checked the status of their votes through its network. Ufone is third in a row with 980,072 SMS, Warid with 448,438 and Zong with 392,816.
Tariq Malik said Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in collaboration with NADRA and mobile phone operators launched the world’s biggest short message service (SMS) for 83.2 million Pakistani voters besides displaying new electoral rolls across the country.
He said on sending at short code 8300 CNIC number (without dashes), a voters gets an SMS with the information of his/her electoral area name in Urdu language, where she/he is registered to vote, including tehsil and district. Exact Block code number per Pakistan Census Organization is also displayed with serial number in the respective voters list.
Mr. Malik appreciated the cooperation of mobile companies in this historic move leading towards ensuring free and fair elections. This is the initial phase and cellular companies will design more strategies to encourage citizens while with the passage of time.
