PESHAWAR, June 24: Different political parties on Sunday expressed serious reservations over the voter registration process and asked the Election Commission of Pakistan to extend by 21 days the period for display of the new voters’ lists.

The demand was made by representatives of the Pakistan People’s Party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Jamaat-i-Islami, Pakistan People’s Party (Sherpao) and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl at a meeting held to review the draft voters’ list. The meeting was organised by the Centre for Civic Education Pakistan (CCE) with the support of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) in Dargai, Malakand Agency, here on Sunday. Quraysh Khattak, Programme Manager of the CCE, conducted the proceedings.

Political parties’ representatives from different parts of the Malakand district complained that the people were not coming forward to check and enlist their names because of the cumbersome voter registration procedure. Besides, they said, staff of display centres did not perform their duties from 9am to 5pm because of nominal remuneration paid to them. They asked the ECP to increase the pay of staff working on correction of the voters’ list.

Names of 42,478 voters, registered in the previous lists, were missing from the list, they claimed.

They demanded extension in the 21-day display period so that most of the people could enlist themselves as voters. In 2002, the total registered voters in the district stood at 206,388 which has now come down to 163,910 in proposed new lists.

A drastic decrease has also been noticed in the number of women voters.

In the previous voters’ lists of 2002, the number of women voters was 93094, which has shrunk to 53924 in the latest voters’ lists.

The representatives asked the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) to send mobile registration teams to union councils to facilitate people in getting computerized identity cards.

Participants of the training session agreed to review electoral lists in their respective areas.