ISLAMABAD: Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will use 100 biometric voting machines (BVM) on trial basis in 39 polling stations of NA-120 Lahore-III bye-election on Sunday.

According to an ECP official, the biometric voting machines will be used in 55 male and 45 female polling stations with having coverage of total 57,000 voters.

He said the decision of using the BVM machines was taken in order to ensure transparency in the election process while the commission would also examine the use of this facility besides problems in this system.

“The verification process of the voters would complete in 15 to 18 seconds in this system while these machines would operate by the experienced operators.”

He said that the BVM machines were being used purely on trial basis on the wishes of political parties and candidates.

He said that there would be no effects of use of these machines on results of this bye-election as this would be just an experimental exercise and a local IT firm would provide its technical assistance to the ECP on trial use of BVM machines.

He appealed the voters of NA-120 to use these machines to examine the performance of these BVM machines and ensuring possibility of use of these machines in next general elections.— APP