MUZAFFARABAD: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Election Commission on Thursday acknowledged that preliminary electoral rolls prepared for the 2026 legislative assembly elections still contained “numerous errors”, despite its recent claim that around 90 per cent of discrepancies had already been rectified.

In a press release, the commission said complaints had been received from political parties and members of the public regarding missing votes, transfer of votes from one district or one locality to another.

The commission said April 1, 2026 had been fixed as the qualifying date for voter registration and the process of revising electoral rolls had begun on April 18. Registration officers were tasked with removing deceased voters from the 2022 electoral rolls and enrolling eligible voters, followed by appeals before revising authorities.

However, scrutiny of the printed preliminary lists revealed “many errors”, prompting the commission to take suo motu notice of the matter.

It said a meeting of Revenue Department officials was convened and, following the suggestions received there, a high-level committee headed by the deputy commissioner of Bagh was formed to determine how the discrepancies had occurred and assess the scale of the errors.

The press release said the chief election commissioner (CEC) retired Justice Ghulam Mustafa Mughal, along with commission’s member Syed Nazeerul Hassan Gillani and secretary Muhammad Shakil Khan, had also met the chairman of National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) in Islamabad, where an exchange of information confirmed that the complaints were genuine.

The commission said revising authorities had been directed under the Election Act 2020 to correct omissions and wrong entries of eligible voters.

Only four days ago, the Election Commission had claimed that around 90pc of discrepancies in electoral rolls had been rectified and the remaining issues would be resolved within days.

It had also vowed to announce the election schedule by mid-May.

On Thursday, it reiterated its commitment to “free and transparent elections,” which it said required transparent voter lists.

It announced that, before final publication, draft electoral rolls in soft form would be sent to all registration officers to ensure the entries matched those originally submitted by them and that no eligible voter was inadvertently left out.

The commission also urged the public to approach their respective registration officers to verify their particulars in the electoral rolls.

Published in Dawn, May 15th, 2026