KARACHI: The Pakistan Peoples Party has claimed to have found “massive irregularities” in electoral rolls mainly in Larkana district, demanding the authorities conduct a fresh exercise to fix the issue.

In a letter to the chief election commissioner (CEC), Taj Haider, senior party leader and head of its election cell, referred to several flaws in the electoral rolls and demanded immediate action.

“Massive irregularities in electoral rolls were found in District Larkana, especially in NA-200 and PS-10 and PS 11,” he said in the letter. “During verification of the above-mentioned electoral rolls as well as those in other constituencies our voters visiting display centres have found massive irregularities in the rolls. According to our estimates, a good 30 per cent of votes have not been included in their original census blocks (blocks of their residence).”

Instead, he said, they had been shifted to other unrelated census blocks. These irregularities were found all over district Larkana and were much more prominent in NA-200, PS-10 and PS-11, he said, adding that at this stage the party was not sure why this was done.

“But, this cannot be done without a definite purpose,” Mr Haider alleged. “One obvious result of these irregularities would be that a very high percentage of voters would stand disenfranchised. Your Honour [the CEC] will agree that preparation of massively incorrect electoral rolls amounts to pre-poll rigging. NA-200 is represented by PPP chairman and if such irregularities have taken place in a constituency represented by him one can well imagine what is the situation in other constituencies of Sindh.”

He expected the CEC to appreciate that it was not humanly possible for each and every voter to check whether his vote had been recorded in the census block of his residence or not.

Published in Dawn, February 12th, 2020