LANDI KOTAL: The local chapters of all mainstream political parties seem not interested in registration of new voters prior to the 2018 general elections.

It was observed during an awareness session at Jamrud Press Club that local leaders of the political parties had little knowledge about the process of voters’ registration. Except Jamaat-i-Islami and JUI-F, all the political parties were represented by low cadre party activists, who were not even aware as to when the voters’ registration was started and where the display centres were established.

However, the representatives of the political parties accused the local officials of Election Commission of Pakistan of not informing them timely about the registration of new voters.


Local leaders of political parties have little knowledge of the process


Speaking on the occasion, JI Khyber chapter chief Shah Faisal Afridi alleged that voter lists provided to candidates during the previous general elections had a lot of errors. He said that a large number of eligible tribesmen were denied their constitutional right to enlist themselves as voters.

The JI leader also expressed reservations over the location of most the polling stations and the map of Bara subdivision provided to them by the local officials of ECP.

However, the participants of the session belonging to Jamrud and Landi Kotal expressed satisfaction over the previous vote lists but showed their ignorance about the ongoing process of registration of voters.

None of the representatives of the political parties had any knowledge about the total number of votes for the two National Assembly seats nor were they aware about the ongoing registration process.

Speaking on the occasion, Agency Election Commissioner Pervaiz Iqbal said that his office made several contacts with all the stakeholders including representatives of all major political parties, tribal elders, members of civil society and officials of different government departments to inform them about the procedure of voters’ registration and preparation of new voter lists.

He said that as per rules, National Database and Registration Authority provided them with a list of 104,297 new CNIC holders prior to August 10 when the process began countrywide.

Mr Iqbal said that a total of 91,786 new CNIC holders were verified as new voters while 12,511 could not be verified. “As many as 585 were deleted from the previous list as they were either registered in other constituencies or died after 2013,” he added.

Mr Iqbal said that 539 government schoolteachers were engaged by ECP for the registration process, which was still in progress as his office had established 11 display centres in the entire Khyber Agency with two each in Landi Kotal and Jamrud and seven in Bara.

“The new lists would remain on display till the 10th on this month during which local residents would be given choice to correct their names and delete or transfer votes to other constituency,” said Mr Iqbal.

He advised all the stakeholders to cooperate with his office in finalising the new voter lists and inform people about importance of voter registration.

None of the local tribal elder attended the meeting while MNAs from NA-45 and MN-46 were also absent on the occasion.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2016

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