July 03, 2007	Tuesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 17, 1428

HARIPUR, July 2: Despite heavy spending on public awareness for bringing the people to display centres in large numbers by various NGOs and the Election Commission of Pakistan, only 1,100 claims for new entries in the draft electoral rolls have been filed across the Haripur district so far, according to official sources.

The sources told Dawn on Monday that upon completion of the first phase of registration of voters which was carried out by August 2006, the second phase for preparation of computerised electoral rolls began with displaying of draft electoral rolls across the country from June 12 to July 3.

According to official sources, the office of assistant election commissioner, Haripur, about 2,500 would-be voters so far had approached different display centres and claimed forms. Of the total recipients only 1,100 had filed claims in the last 20 days and the revising authority had decided on 600 claims so far, sources added.

For correction of names and other related matters, the district had received only 30 claims while for deletion of multiple entries or those who had died were only 40 claimants.

Answering a question, a source said that during the last general election there were 450,000 registered voters while at the time of last local bodies election there were 400,221 registered voters in Haripur district and the number of voters were expected to be reduced further after the deletion of multiple entries.

About the ongoing process, the source said disposal of claims, objections and corrections and incorporation of decision in the manuscript copies, would be carried out from July 4 to 13, and the manuscript copies would be dispatched to concerned offices of election commission between July 16 to 23 and data entry and printing of final electoral rolls would commence on July 26.

Meanwhile, the Assistant Election Commissioner of Haripur, Khalid Waheed Khan, when contacted for comments on the poor response of the people, he appeared to be satisfied with the process adding that Haripur was far better than other districts.