Muscat: Nomination of candidates for the seventh term of Oman's Majlis Al Shura will start on Saturday and the last date for submission of papers is February 2.
The Election Commission (EC) has started registering personal identification cards (ID) of voters through mobile units.
The mobile units to register voters' ID for eVoting are currently visiting government departments as well as private corporate houses in Muscat. Eligible voters are required to register their ID cards with the election commission to be able to cast their votes to elect members to the 84-seat Majlis Al Shura.
A spokesman for the election commission said the advanced electronic system is expected to encourage citizens to take part in the voting and election of candidates as it has several advantages.
"The system is the translation of the government's move towards integrating the e-Government concept and keeping pace with modern developments," a spokesperson said.
New system
The EC hopes the new system would help speed up counting of votes and also eliminate any possibility of bogus voting.
The newly-built BankMuscat head office in Al Seeb, which houses over 2,000 employees, became the first private sector entity to be visited by the mobile unit for registering voters' IDs for eVoting.
"BankMuscat is honoured to be chosen as the first private sector organisation in the country to launch the eVoting card activation system. The new process marks a major step as part of the government's ambitious e-Governance initiative-2," Sulaiman Al Harthy, group DGM, Consumer Banking, said. "As on previous occasions, ... the bank is proud to launch the eVoting card activation process," he added.
