PESHAWAR: The Election Commission of Pakistan on Thursday started door-to-door pilot survey to know the reasons and reduce gender gap in voter registration.

Presiding over a meeting of the gender and discipline electoral working group here, provincial election commissioner Sharifullah said that accurate registration of voters and preparation of voter lists was the first and important phase for transparency of elections.

The meeting was attended by representatives of various non-government organisations, according to a press release.

According to him, there is a difference of 12.7 million in the voter lists of both the genders across the country.

Mr Sharifullah said that other departments and civil society organisations should also help in preparation of accurate voter lists. He said that the gender affairs and electoral roles wing of ECP had identified 229 census block codes (CBCs) in 21 tehsils across the country having a significant gender gap in the voter registration.

He said training workshops for district election commissioners, assistant registration officers and verifying officers were arranged by the ECP to conduct the survey, said Mr Sharifullah, adding the data to be collected during the survey would be compared with that of Nadra, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics and Electoral Rolls.

The provincial election commissioner said the pilot project would continue till August 31.

He said a number of localities were identified in five districts, including Mardan, Upper Dir, Mansehra, Bannu, and Khyber, that had huge difference in the voter lists on the basis of gender.

He said as per schedule, preparations would be completed till July 25, 2020, to finalise initial voter lists till August 20. The process of correction of voter lists and delimitations would continue till Oct 13, he added.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2020