July 15, 2007	Sunday	Jamadi-us-Sani 29, 1428

ISLAMABAD, July 14: The Election Commission on Saturday shrugged off concerns expressed by Pakistan People’s Party chairperson Benazir Bhutto over millions of names said to be missing from voter lists.

In a letter sent to Ms Bhutto on behalf of the Chief Election Commissioner, a spokesperson for the ECP said the draft computerised electoral rolls had been prepared in accordance with rules.

The letter said only those people had been registered in the new voters’ lists who possessed NIC or CNIC issued by Nadra. That was why, it said, 20 million people could not be enrolled as voters.

It said the rolls had been prepared in accordance with the Electoral Rolls Act and the Electoral Rolls Rules which laid down that the rolls should contain the number of National Identity Card of each voter.

The spokesperson said the computerised electoral rolls were prepared in three phases.

The first phase, he said, had commenced with door-to-door enumeration and names of only those people had been entered who possessed NIC or CNIC.

The second phase commenced with the draft publication of computerised electoral rolls for inviting claims (for inclusion), objections (for deletion), applications (for corrections).

The draft electoral rolls were displayed at more than 45,000 display centres throughout the country so as to enable eligible voters to file applications for corrections, he said.