ISLAMABAD, July 3: The Election Commission on Tuesday extended the display period of draft voters’ list for 15 days upto July 18 following the promulgation of an ordinance amending the Electoral Rolls Act 1974 by President Gen Pervez Musharraf.

An announcement by the EC said that Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Qazi Mohammad Farooq had revised the schedule for preparation of the 2006-07 computerised electoral rolls and legal provision with regard to 21 days period for filing claims, objections and applications for corrections had been amended.

The CEC said that the extension had been allowed due to torrential rains in the country, especially in some parts of Sindh, Balochistan and the NWFP provinces.

He said that the rains had caused dislocation of people on a vast scale and they were not in a position to go to the display centres.

The CEC said that the eligible persons should avail this opportunity and file claims, objections and applications for corrections in the draft computerised electoral rolls by July 18.

Earlier, President Gen Pervez Musharraf issued an ordinance amending section 10 (Act XXI of 1974) in the Electoral Rolls Act 1974.

The ordinance says: “In section 10, after the words ‘twenty-one days’ the words ‘or more as prescribed by the chief election commissioner’ shall be inserted.”

Meanwhile, the Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen), a group of 30 civil society organisations formed to monitor the electoral process in the country, has welcomed the two-week extension announced by the EC for the public display of computerised draft electoral lists, but noted with concern the low-level of voter enrolment so far recorded over the past three weeks.

In a statement, Fafen said that according to a survey an average of 4.33 voters per day have filled out form for inclusion of their names in the voters’ list which means that only about 3.54 million new voters might have been added to the voters’ list from all 45,000 display centres by July 3.

However, the number of voters who might have been registered is only a fraction of the estimates of the number of “missing” voters from the list that ranges between 33 and 38 million.

It said that the present situation posses a dilemma for the EC which had no option but to resort to discretionary powers vested in the CEC by the Electoral Rolls Act 1974 to register millions of voters who otherwise would be disenfranchised.

Fafen data reveals that 39.7 per cent of display centre information officers interviewed in 4,064 display centres in all provinces never received any training and 12.8 per cent did not receive the EC manual of instruction.