Smart card technology played a great part in making the electoral process easier and smoother this year, President of the Central Informatics Organisation Dr. Mohammed A. Al Amer said yesterday.
Speaking at a press conference Dr. Amer explained that the use of smart cards facilitated the actual voting process as well as voter registration.
"All that a voter had to do was to go to a polling station and put the card in the reader. The relevant information of the voter came up immediately and the election committee
Volunteer then allowed the person to cast his vote if it was correct," Dr. Amer explained.
The registration process for voters earlier required citizens to physically register in order to be entitled to cast their votes, however this has been simplified this year.
"This time we published the list of eligible voters according to our data. Citizens then had to just check their names and if a name was missing, a person was given ample time to register and have their name added to the list."
He added that the smart card is a tool that will make things easier in the future. It will be particularly useful when one travels between GCC states. Trials are currently ongoing between Bahrain and Qatar for citizens to simply swipe their smart card when entering the neighbouring countries.
"Bahrainis and Qataris can enter and leave each others country by just swiping their card at special immigration counters," Dr. Amer explained.
Once the trial period is completed and the hiccups ironed out, card readers will be used in all the other GCC countries, he added.
Bonny Mascarenhas, Staff Reporter
© Bahrain Tribune 2010
