June 22, 2007	Friday	Jamadi-us-Sani 06, 1428

MANSEHRA, June 21: The shrinking number of voters, which decreased from 65, 000 to 40,000, annoyed tribesmen in Kala Dhaka, a Provincially-Administered Tribal Area. Like elsewhere in Mansehra district, the Election Commission displayed the newly-compiled voters’ lists in the tribal area, which showed a decrease of about 35 per cent votes.

Tribesmen have demanded the restoration of old voters’ lists.

Zarmud Khan, a local tribesman, said that it was an alarming position as it did not reflect the increase in the population of the area.

He said that the provincial government had reduced a assembly seat from their area because of the decrease in the number of voters in 1985, adding that they were now left with only one seat.

When this correspondent contacted the Assistant Eelection Commissioner, Mohammad Naeem, for his comments on the issue, he said that they had set up display centers in the area for redressing the complaints and grievances and complaints of people.

He said that people could now bring forward complaints regarding inclusion or exclusion of their names, objections and corrections.

He said : “Our teams had visited all areas in Kala Dhaka to get all voters registered but the number of voters had decreased because people did not posses new computerised nation identity cards but genuine voters were still being added in the voters’ lists.”