ISLAMABAD, Aug 1: The Election Commission has decided to do away with the condition of presenting the computerised national identity cards for voter registration and casting votes in the forthcoming general elections. The EC has also decided to re-launch a door-to-door enumeration process to include the names of millions of missing voters in the computerised electoral rolls.
The decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of the EC held on Wednesday with the Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Qazi Muhamad Farooq in the chair.
EC secretary Kunwar Dilshad told Dawn that the provincial election authorities had been directed to submit reports within two days on the strategy and modalities to implement the Supreme Court’s directives in its judgment of July 26, ordering inclusion of names of all eligible voters in the electoral rolls.The meeting decided to send a summary to the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs for seeking approval from the president for the proposal of omitting numbers of national identity cards from the Form-1 of the electoral rolls. This would need an amendment in Rule 3 (1) of the Electoral Rolls Rules, 1974.
The Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs will also be asked to suitably amend the provisions of Section 18 (1) of the Electoral Rolls Act, 1974, as well as Section 33 (1) of the Representation of the People Act, 1976, to exclude the condition of CNIC’s production before a registration officer for the purpose of enrolment as voter and inserting the provision of presenting any other proof of identity at the time of voting.
The meeting approved the schedule for undertaking the exercise of entering names of those people who could not be enrolled as voters for the reason that they did not possess CNICs during the enrolment process. The EC issued directions that all arrangements involved in the door-to-door enumeration process as well as stages involved for the purpose should be completed, accordingly.
The Supreme Court had directed the EC to ensure registration of all eligible voters in the electoral rolls through a fresh and comprehensive scheme.
