Preparations are under way for the tenth term of the Majlis Ash’shura elections, where as many as 883 candidates, including 33 women, are running for the council seats for the next four years.
The Ministry of Interior has intensified media campaign, urged citizens to participate in the electoral process, and use electronic applications to facilitate voter registration and stay connected with everything about the Majlis Ash’shura elections.
People with special needs are given additional facilities to make voting hassle-free and less time-consuming. They can use ‘Antukhib’, a mobile application that emphasises the need to enable people with disabilities to participate in the elections.
‘Intekhaab’ will also help citizens to discuss all aspects related to elections and to study opinions and proposals among officials, specialists and voters, and to go through the profiles of the candidates before voting.
The Department of Election at the Ministry of Interior is working round-the-clock to ensure a free and fair election. According to the officials, artificial intelligence and digital media will help in offering a fruitful election experience.
The voting process will be in electronic mode, where the mobile application called ‘Intekhaab’ provides a package of electoral services, including primary and final lists of candidates, primary and final lists of voters, verification of registered voters, and follow-up of automated counting indicators on the voting day. Users of the application can also submit feedback and suggestions.
“The app’s most important feature is the ‘Safhatee’ (My Page) section,” says Maha al Wuhaibi, Director.
“The application contains a discussion feature, which is an electronic window for community participation, to express opinions and allows discussions on electoral process with specialists, trainers and others according to the points raised in the discussion area”, she added.
The ‘Safhatee’ service, launched by the ministry with the election mobile application and the election website, ‘elections.om’, allows candidates to post their electoral campaign for the tenth term of the Majlis Ash’shura elections, and enables them to communicate with voters from the same constituency and interact with them directly.
It also allows candidates to post publications and video clips through this service; voters can view the list of candidates, follow up on what the candidate publishes, interact with and comment on them, and learn about their biographies, social contributions, and academic achievements.
Speaking to the Observer, Malik al Hinai from the Department of Election at the ministry, said that the ‘Antukhib’ application, equipped with artificial intelligence, is a mobile application dedicated to voting. It is characterised by its ease of use and speed of performance.
“The ‘Antukhib’ mobile application is considered a quantum leap and a digital transformation in the electoral aspect, as it verifies the voter’s data by reading the ID card data from both sides, as well as by near-field communication (NFC)”, he said.
The application requires a personal photo of the voter to match with the ID card photo to ensure better safety.
“This is done through facial recognition technology, and it also provides a high level of security and transparency for the electoral process.”
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