ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has clarified that it had already provided to the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) voter lists used in the general elections 2013 and also those used in the recently held by-elections in NA-122 constituency.
Responding to a PTI statement on the issue of voter lists, a spokesperson for the commission said on Sunday that at the time of 2013 elections, there were 326,028 registered voters in NA-122 and during the by-elections held this year the number of registered voters was 347,762, increase of 21,734.
As far as the PTI’s allegation about shifting of votes without the consent of the voters concerned, he said that under Section 18 of Electoral Rolls Act, 1974, no vote could be shifted from one electoral area to other without the consent of a voter. For this it is mandatory for the voter to appear before a registration officer.
Only after the satisfaction of the officer concerned, a vote is moved to another electoral area and consequently the vote is deleted from the previous area.
In the computerised voter list, there is one CNIC for one vote and, therefore, a vote is shifted to the voter’s desired address after satisfaction of the registration officer concerned.
The record of votes shifted under Section 18 of the Electoral Act, 1974, is available in the offices of registration officers.
The spokesperson reiterated that the commission was ready to provide information in this regard to PTI representatives.—APP
Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2015
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