KARACHI, Sept 28: The Election Commission (EC) is considering to extend the deadline for registration of voters from September 30 to mid-October, in response to requests made by the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), sources told Dawn.
MMA’s Sindh chapter had asked the EC to extend the date by at least 90 days, claiming that a large number of people were ignored, and at many places even the prescribed forms were not distributed.
In a statement, PPP’s Sindh chapter had demanded extension in the deadline for registration of voters until the end of October to enable a vast majority of eligible voters to avail of the opportunity. The statement said many people could not get their names registered due to the situation prevailing in the wake of the recent rains in the province as well as interference from certain quarters.
Sindh Election Commissioner Qamar-uz-Zaman Chaudhry told Dawn that since the deadline for registration was still two days away and the field staff was busy updating the figures, it was difficult to say exactly how much work had been completed. However, according to a rough estimate, 90 per cent or 5.3 million households had been approached in the province, against the last year’s final figure of 4.9 million.
To a question, he said that the previous electoral rolls featured 16 million voters, but they contained duplications due to the use of both old and new ID cards. The old lists were, therefore, totally discarded, he added.
“All precautions are being taken in the preparation of the news lists so as to avoid any discrepancies. After their preparation, the lists will be checked by assistant election commissioners and verified by Nadra,” he said.
The lists obtained in the wake of this check and verification process would be cent per cent accurate in accordance with the Nadra record, he said. Due to elimination of duplication, the number of eligible voters could also be reduced, he added.
To a question, Mr Chaudhry said that it was really difficult to carry out the enlisting and survey work in certain coastal areas of the province like Hyderabad, Thatta, Matiari, where the rains had wrecked a great havoc and people had to be shifted to safe places.
He said that the task of enumeration in Karachi had been assigned to primary school teachers who were required to operate after their duty hours at schools.
In most of the cases, enumerators had to pay multiple visits to do the enlisting work, he said, asking the people, particularly those living in Defence, Clifton Cantonment and North Nazimabad, to cooperate with the enumeration staff.
“If the available family member only produces the ID cards of the people living in the house, the staff can fill the form itself and get it signed by the respective person. This will serve to lessen their problems,” he said.
The official also pointed out to difficulties being faced by enumerators in case of apartments where guards on duty stopped them from entering the compounds.
He said that in case people could not return the filled-in forms for any reason, they could submit them in the office of Assistant Election Commissioner in their district or the Election Commission office.
