ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has asserted that the validity of a ballot paper issued in accordance with procedures prescribed in the law and the votes polled cannot be questioned.

“The legality of all ballot papers issued and votes cast remains protected unless established otherwise at a competent forum,” said a fact-sheet prepared by the commission in response to controversies relating to the 2013 elections.

The fact-sheet was shared with the parliamentary committee on electoral reforms on Monday with the consent of majority of its members.

ECP Secretary Ishtiak Ahmad Khan told the committee at a meeting presided over by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar that the decision to obtain thumb impression with magnetised ink on the electoral rolls which carried the photograph of each voter had been taken to preclude the possibility of impersonation and to ensure transparency.

“If some of the thumb impressions could not be verified, it would not affect the validity of the votes cast,” he said.

He said the reason for inability of the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) to read some thumbprints could be that they were not properly made. “If an impression cannot be read by the computer, it does not mean that the vote is bogus.”

Mr Khan said the thumb impression was taken on the counterfoil of the ballot paper and the voter’s CNIC number was also noted on it and it was a legal requirement. The requirement of magnetised ink was meant to be an additional administrative measure.

He said the ECP was now working on the use of biometric system in the next elections and had proposed necessary legislation for the purpose.

Director General (data warehouse) Nadra Muzaffar Hussain said thumbprints with normal ink could also be read if the impression had been properly taken. He said no thumbprint had been declared unverified by Nadra. “These were just unreadable impressions for technical reasons.”

The ECP secretary said that in India the entire polling staff had been placed under the administrative control of the election commission. The ECP had also proposed amendment to the law on the same lines before the 2013 general elections and sought powers to penalise district returning officers and returning officers and other polling staff who in any manner tried to influence the election results or violated the law, but it could not be realised.

Mr Khan rejected a perception that the number of rejected votes in the last elections was abnormally high. The number was higher than in previous polls because registered voters and turnout were higher this time, he said.

Farooq Naek of the PPP asked the ECP secretary who possessed the unused ballot papers and when told that they were lying in the district treasury, he remarked: “This is law of the rule and not the rule of law.”

Mr Naek said the storage of vital documents in district treasury meant that they were in the custody of the government. The unused ballot papers must be in possession of the ECP, he said.

Managing Director of the Printing Corporation of Pakistan (PCP) Izhar Hussain Shamim said it was not for the first time that private experts had been hired for numbering ballot papers.

He said 48 people had been sent to the PCP, but 14 of them were found not fit for the job for being underage and the remaining 34 performed the task. He rejected the allegation about getting additional ballot papers printed from Urdu Bazar.

The ECP also rejected an allegation that extra ballot papers had been printed and distributed on May 9, 2013, in five divisions of Punjab. The fact-sheet says: “It is a matter of record that in all these five divisions, almost 100 per cent of the ballot papers had already been distributed to the returning officers by May 9, who had carried out bulk breaking of these ballot papers and prepared the sealed bags containing ballot papers for handing over to the presiding officers a day before the polls (May 10). It was therefore practically impossible to print and distribute extra ballot papers to the returning officers for putting them into already sealed bags...”

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2014

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