June 20, 2007	Wednesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 04, 1428

ISLAMABAD, June 19: A petition was filed with the Supreme Court on Tuesday requesting the court to direct the Election Commission to provide provisional voter lists in electronic format to political parties.

The petition filed by Spokesman Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and former Senator Farhatullah Babar said it would enable them carry out cross checks and trace the missing thirty million voters that have disappeared from the new lists.

The petition also prays for directions to the Election Commission to make simpler the procedure of adding new names to the rolls, extend the display period of voters lists and make multiple identity documents acceptable for registration and casting of votes.

“Multiple identity documents such as old or new identity cards, arms licence, driving licence, passport, rural credit pass be accepted both for purpose of registration of voters and for voting.”

Anyone producing a valid original document should be allowed to register as a voter without hassle and on the spot, he said.

The petition says that the NADRA database be placed at the disposal of the Election Commission for updating and cross check of its lists.

The petition seeks directions to the Election Commission to make public the multiple entries it claims to have detected in the voters lists and which is cited as one of the major reasons for the massive drop in the number of registered voters.

He said that according to the rolls prepared by NADRA for the 2002 elections there were nearly 72 million voters. The number of voters should have increased to over 82 million by now given a 2.8 per cent increase in population, the provisional voters lists however show only around 52 million voters raising questions where 30 million voters— more than one third of the total voters— had disappeared.

The petitioner said that the year 2007 is the Election Year, the fairness or otherwise of which will determine the political direction the country will take. As manipulated power transfer has been at the root of Pakistan’s political instability, it is of critical importance that the elections are not only free and fair but are also perceived as such and to avoid another spell of political instability that could be disastrous, he said.

Meanwhile, Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) has observed that procedural inadequacies, ineffective management and lacklustre response of the eligible voters that may have serious implications on the final electoral rolls mar the ongoing display of draft electoral rolls.