LAHORE, Aug 29: The Consumer Watch Pakistan (CWP) on Wednesday urged the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to take immediate steps to ensure that the vote registration process included effective checks to eliminate chances of fake entries.

This would particularly require maximum transparency in the process of registering missing voters in the computerised electoral rolls, it said in a statement issued here.

The CWP said the commission must provide a detailed explanation of the procedure that was being adopted, especially in relation to the verification of those missing voters who did not have NICs or Computerised National Identity Cards (CNICs).

This was important in view of the apprehension that the absence of NIC or CNIC condition might result in fake or bogus entries, if the verification process was not effective and credible. All the stakeholders, especially the political parties, needed to be taken into confidence right from the very beginning.

The CWP said the ECP had already spent a significant time and resources on preparing the draft computerised rolls, which were currently being updated by comparing them with voters’ lists of 2002 in order to identify the potential missing voters.

The missing voters would later be entered in the draft computerised rolls after necessary verification. This process, which had been devised after the Supreme Court’s intervention on the PPP’s petition, could certainly succeed provided the procedure was completely transparent and the verification process was effective and credible.

The CWP recommended that the ECP must proactively share all the relevant details with the stakeholders, and take immediate steps for making the registration process completely transparent. The lists of missing voters, as identified through the comparison of newly prepared draft rolls with the 2002 rolls, should be accessible to political parties and civil society organisations.

These lists should then be verified through a transparent procedure, known to all stakeholders beforehand. It must be clearly known as to what kind of documents or procedure for verification would be acceptable to the authorities to determine the identity of a missing voter. The related staff must have clear guidelines to follow whereas these guidelines should also be made public in order to minimise the possibility of potential abuse.

The CWP said although the 30-day time provided by the SC for the registration of missing voters was short, it would be extremely important to provide at least five days for inviting public objections on the verified lists of missing voters. This should happen before these lists of missing voters were added to the draft computerised electoral rolls.

For the purpose of seeking public objections, the verified lists of missing voters must be displayed at conspicuous places and made accessible to stakeholders such as political parties. This arrangement would contribute to making the process transparent and deterring fraud or bogus entries.

Furthermore, the CWP said, the ECP needed to realise that poorly paid staff, as it had been the case in the past registration efforts, might not deliver the requisite quality work. Generally, schoolteachers were involved in the registration process, but they did not take much interest in view of the low compensation and additional workload.