ISLAMABAD, April 25: The Pakistan People’s Party has stressed that political parties must be given the voter lists in an electronic format (e-copy) to facilitate their preliminary verification.

“It would enable the political parties to see whether ghost voters have sneaked into the lists and some genuine voters kept out,” PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar said in a press statement here on Wednesday.

He expressed grave concern over the refusal by the Election Commission to provide copies of provisional voter lists to political parties saying that it has caused a serious dent in the credibility of the first step towards holding of free and fair elections.

Mr Babar said that preparation of an accurate, complete and credible voters list was the first critical step for transparent elections and any real or perceived manipulation in it would make the entire election exercise dubious.

It is the constitutional responsibility of the Election Commission to ensure free and fair elections and denial of the lists to the most important stakeholders is not consistent with the constitutional obligations, he said.

The former senator also objected the ‘secrecy’ woven around the data entry centres. Keeping the work at the data entry centres a secret for the political parties and other stakeholders would only fuel misgivings that must be avoided, he added.

Manipulated elections have been at the centre of Pakistan’s political problems and a cause of political instability, he said, adding that urgent and credible steps needed to be taken to ward off perceptions of manipulated voter lists.