PPP raises concern over ECP lethargy in correcting lists
By Our Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD, July 10: The People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) has expressed its concern over, what it called, continued inaction by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to correct discrepancies in the voters’ list, saying, “the clouds cast on (the) fairness of (the) polls are becoming darker and thicker with each passing day.”
A spokesperson for the party and former senator, Farhatullah Babar, in a statement on Tuesday, said the findings of a survey conducted by the National Democratic Institute (NDI) in 19 districts of the country and released to the media, had endorsed the fears expressed earlier by the PPP and called upon the ECP to urgently address the issues raised in it.
Quoting the survey report, which revealed that 30 per cent of the voters were missing and another 26 per cent of the names in the lists were either incorrect or had duplicate entries, he deplored that no action had been taken by the ECP on the letter written to it by party chairperson Benazir Bhutto, last month to remedy the flaws.
Ms Bhutto had also asked the ECP to provide a copy of the law that claimed to forbid providing draft electoral rolls to political parties, he said.
“Despite (the) passage of more than two weeks, the ECP has not provided (a) copy of the law that is claimed to forbid providing (of) provisional lists, in electronic format, to the parties,” he said.
He said voters also must be told in advance where to cast their votes.
For this purpose, the names of voters and the corresponding polling station should be placed on the ECP web page in advance, he said.
Similarly, he said, any changes in the location of polling stations and the area assigned to each polling station should also be posted on the website.
Mr Babar said enrolment as a voter should not be dependent solely upon the production of a Nadra ID card (CNIC) and any other official document, like a passport or a driving or arms license be also accepted for enrolment as a voter, he said, adding “(the) issuance of free identity cards is important but is not sufficient.”
He said political parties must also be allowed access to the data entry centres to ally fears of pre-poll computer rigging. He said the party had received information that the computerisation of eligible voters had been entrusted to expert systems who were also consultants to the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra).
The expert system is reported to have taken the Nadra record and deleted all eligible voters who did not have the identity cards. “Those deleted voters should also be restored,” he emphasised.
