July 14, 2007	Saturday	Jamadi-us-Sani 28, 1428

ISLAMABAD, July 13: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairperson Benazir Bhutto has sent another letter to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Justice (retd) Qazi Mohammad Farooq expressing concern over discrepancies in the draft voters list issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for the next general election in the country.

The letter, delivered to the CEC by party MPA Amir Fida Paracha on Friday, has brought in his notice a report jointly prepared by the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and a local NGO in which serious concerns have been raised about the flaws in the provisional voters list issued by the ECP.

Ms Bhutto wrote: “This is my third letter outlining the PPP’s concerns regarding the provisional electoral rolls. I write to the ECP, as the constitution mandates it as ‘the guarantor of the conduct of fair elections’.”

“The PPP worries that fair elections cannot be held without the electoral roll issue being resolved. I am awaiting a reply to my letter of June 25,” she added.

Quoting the NDI survey, she said, in a review of 3,664 entries, 26 per cent were not found at the address given on the voters list suggesting that out of the 52 million names on the list, up to 13 million entries might be duplicates or incorrect.

“The local branches and youth wings of political parties also checked the names of 4,514 of their members who are eligible voters to find that 30 per cent were missing from the lists. This indicates that about 16 million or 30 per cent eligible voters are yet to be registered,” she quoted the excerpts from the survey report.

She said: “It is for this very purpose that the PPP has been asking the ECP to provide electronic copies of both the provisional and final lists.”

The PPP leader hoped that the political parties would be given the electronic lists without further delay and an inquiry would be held into those responsible for preparing fraudulent lists on such a massive scale.