Sawtak impresses voters

Al hamra, OCT 27 - The Al Dakhiliyah Governorate witnessed a large number of citizens casting their votes in the Majlis Ash’shura elections on Sunday. There were 81,727 voters including 44,941 women in the governorate to elect their representatives from a total of 74 candidates contesting for the ninth term of Majlis Ash’shura. For the first time, voters were able to vote through an electronic system, called ‘Sawtak’, which means ‘Your Voice’. The system comes with a touch screen in which all the procedures and steps of the election are detailed. “This helped the voters to smoothly cast their vote. The machine is built to suit various category of voters that include elderly and disabled people,” the Ministry of Interior said. Salim al Sunaidi, Wali of al Hamra and the Chairman of the election committee, said that about 5,696 voters (males and females) are registered in the wilayat. “There are eight committees set to facilitate the process of voting. The electronic voting proved its efficiency and the size of awareness that voters showed in terms of cooperation with the committees and organisers is pleasing,” he said. Zuwaina al Mahrouqiya, a member in the election committee, said the electronic voting facilitated the election process that started at 7 am. “The whole process takes less than one minute. The technical team is present in the centre to smoothly fix any technical faults,” he said. Regarding the easiness of the electoral process, al Mahrouqiya said that elderlies are the priority. “Youth voters cooperated and they allowed elderlies to go first. The waiting period doesn’t exceed 10 minutes and the waiting halls are provided with air-conditioners to avoid any troubles”, he said. The medical team consisting of a male and female nurses is prepared to deal with any medical problems. An ambulance was stationed at the site to transfer any cases to the nearest hospital, he added. Umaya al Riyami, a member in the organising committee, said that preparations started few days back before the day of elections. “The duties were distributed evenly between members of the committee. Using the electronic system is very easy even for elderly and the team is there to guide them,” he said.