HYDERABAD, June 30: A total of around 1,256,920 voters have been left out of the draft electoral rolls, which have been placed at display centres, in the eight districts of the defunct Hyderabad division. People are also complaining that staff at the display centres goes missing after 2pm well before their scheduled time of 5pm.

According to the Election Commission of Pakistan’s 2002 electoral lists there were around 3,740,464 registered voters in the eight districts - Hyderabad, Thatta, Badin, Dadu, Matiari, Tando Allahyar, Tando Mohammad Khan and Jamshoro of defunct Hyderabad division.

While the draft rolls of 2006-07 put the total number of registered voters at 2,483,544 showing a marked difference of 1,256,920 voters. The rolls were prepared by the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) after the local government elections.

The fresh provisional rolls put on display were prepared after election commission began enrolment process in July last year and enumeration continued till Sept 30. All the enumerators were from the education department.

They visited from door to door to drop enrolment form in the houses or get them filled in on the spot. There were reports that the enumerators perhaps did not collect all the forms which might be one of the reasons behind exclusion of a large number of voters.

The ECP, however, attributed non-inclusion of voters to unavailability of computerised or old national identity cards (NICs) with the intending voters.

According to the break-up of voters of 2002, 750,031 were registered in Hyderabad district (bifurcated), 279,979 in Matiari, 238,828 in Tando Allahyar, 233,125 in Tando Mohammad Khan, 672,620 in Badin, 61,690 in Thatta, 341,272 in Jamshoro and 607,700 in Dadu.

While the draft rolls 2006-07 put number of voters in Hyderabad at 607,332, 182,391 in Matiari, 175,572 in Tando Allahyar, 141,798 in Tando Mohammad Khan, 377,101 in Badin, 366,585 in Thatta, 231,796 in Jamshoro and 398,969 in Dadu districts. The dropout comes, respectively, to 142,699, 97,588, 63,256, 141,798, 295,519, 250,324, 109,476 and 208,731.

The revising authority was bound to dispose of all the cases within 10 days after expiry of deadline for review of rolls. People who would raise objection over any voter's enrolment or intend to get their names entered were required to fill in the required form.

They would be issued a receipt by the staff, requiring them to appear before revising authority on a particular date. Inquiries revealed that besides exclusion of voters names most of the complaints pertained to publication of incorrect particulars of voters.

In most of the cases the names beginning or ending with “Allah” were not included in the lists. ECP sources said that this problem was created by software used by the company which completed enrolment. The lists were prepared in Lahore under a USAID-funded project in collaboration with ECP at a cost of Rs1 billion.

“The transportation of forms from all over the country and interior of Sindh is one of the issue that caused exclusion of voters because forms are believed to have gone missing,” the source said.

Enumerators also did not verify whether particulars like name, father's name, NIC number and household number were correct. “Some typical names of areas and castes of people like Jahejo, Chachar of interior in Sindh are not believed to have been understood by the feeders. They just entered them in a casual way without getting it verified,” commented another source.

Irregularities are also visible on electoral books’ title and these pertained to number of circle or block and or name of Dehs. Such mistakes were normally rectified by assistant election commission (AEC) concerned or the other competent officer, sources said.

The ECP had restrained the staff at the display centres not to hand over electoral rolls to political parties or anyone to get them copied. “Yes we have directed not to hand over rolls to anyone for having their copies. Anyone can review them at display centres,” said AEC Hyderabad Riaz Memon.

MMA's MPA from Hyderabad said that he had personally seen that a huge number of voters of one union council was entered in another one with same particulars.

While political parties were crying foul over deletion of countless number of voters, none was ready to mobilise their workers in their areas to facilitate voters in getting their names verified and then pursue their case before the revising authorities.

“Yes, we have received complaints that staff normally is not found available at various display centres after 2 pm and we have informed officers accordingly,” said an ECP source adding that normally the staff was available but people were reluctant to approach them.