ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has introduced a computerised voter list system in all provincial election commission offices.

ECP Additional Director General Haroon Khan Shinwari said on Sunday that district election commission officers will no longer have to “collect forms and wait months to sit with staff from Nadra to make entries, changes and corrections regarding details of voter lists”. He added that the new system is far more efficient.

Mr Khan said some 130 district election commissioners, election officers and data entry operators in provincial headquarters, including Peshawar and Quetta, have already been trained to manage and understand the system.

From May 14 to May 26, nearly 400 staff members in all provincial election commission officers were trained in phases.

He explained that creating and managing voter lists used to be an arduous manual exercise, in which election commission staff had to collect forms and it would take three to four months to meet with staff from the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) to feed each form separately, make entries and change the voter lists.

“With this system, a district election commission sitting as far as Rajanpur, for example, can now perform such tasks in minutes without assistance from Nadra,” Mr Khan said.

The computerised voter lists system will become operational throughout the country by the end of July, and voter lists will be prepared well in time for the next elections.

“Above all, the voters will face no inconvenience in getting themselves registered with this new facility,” Mr Khan added.

A training programme for presiding officers, assistant presiding officers, polling officers and other staffers has already been prepared. The training of ECP officials is an aspect of the general elections that was being considered seriously, and officials have already been trained to further train other officers.

Mr Khan said introducing computerised voter lists was a big achievement, and the system would ensure greater transparency in the upcoming elections.

Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2017