ISLAMABAD, July 25: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has received three million applications for inclusion of names in the computerised electoral rolls. A spokesman for the ECP said the applications would be adjudicated upon by the revising authorities by July 28.

He said names of 52 million eligible voters were included in the draft computerised electoral rolls during the process of house-to-house enumeration and the total number of eligible voters would go up to at least 55 million after inclusion of about three million voters in the final voters’ lists to be published by the end of September.

Observers, however, believe that even the addition of names of three million voters would fail to address the concerns over the disenfranchising of millions of voters as it would still be 17 million short of the number of eligible voters in 2002. They say a large number of people would have attained the age of 18 after 2002 to become an eligible voter and the number should have gone up instead of being slashed.

The ECP spokesman clarified that after the publication of the final electoral rolls and before the issuance of the schedule for the conduct of general elections, any person whose name does not appear in the final voters’ lists can apply for inclusion of his name, which will entitle him to cast vote in the forthcoming general elections.

The spokesman did not say as to why the computerised voters’ lists were not put on the website, as had been demanded by various political leaders.

The issue of missing voters is a hot topic nowadays, with political parties and civil society organisations urging the Election Commission to seriously reconsider its decision to reject the possibility of using Nadra’s database as a basis for electoral rolls.

Initially, July 3 had been fixed as the last date for filing complaints or applications for addition and modification of eligible voters names in the preliminary electoral rolls but was later extended to July 18.

Various civil society organisations after separate surveys of the “display centres” established by the Election Commission had reported that the system of entertaining public complaints at them was deeply flawed, disorganised and almost non-functional.