ISLAMABAD, Feb 13: The names of more than 15.3 million voters may still be missing from the updated electoral rolls. And more than 7.5 million names on the list may be listed more than once, according to a study carried out by a coalition of 30 civil society organisations.

The study released by the Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen) here on Wednesday said that on an average the names of 17.65 per cent of the estimated 87.5 million citizens of voting age might be missing from the electoral rolls. And 9.3 per cent of them might be listed more than once, amounting to more than 1.26 million CNIC numbers (1.55 per cent of the total voters).

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has posted the final electoral rolls (FER) on the internet. The commission’s database enables any person to check whether or not his or her name is listed on the FER and therefore registered to vote during the elections in 2008. According to the ECP, only voters listed on the FER and carrying their NIC or CNIC cards with them to the polling stations will be allowed to vote.

Secretary-General of Fafen Sarwar Bari and Coordinator Mudassar Rizvi said the coalition’s current study was based on data collated by it during its earlier investigation of the draft electoral roll.

From June 13 to 18, 2007, Fafen conducted a statistically valid audit of the 2007 draft electoral rolls, which showed that the list, although incomplete, was generally accurate; the names on the draft roll were listed correctly and represented real eligible voters.

Fafen’s June 2007 study included a “People-to-List” audit that involved contacting eligible voters at their homes and checking their names on the draft electoral roll. Almost 27 per cent of the households were found to be missing from the draft electoral rolls.

In the February 2008 follow-up study, the CNIC numbers of 6,721 eligible voters from the “People-to-List” audit were checked with the ECP internet database. More than 17 per cent of the eligible voters’ names were found to be missing from the FER.

It is possible that some of the missing names are included in the FER ‘Supplemental List’, which includes the names added by the ECP from the 2002 voters’ list. These names might be listed only with their NIC numbers or without any identification number at all.

Nevertheless, Fafen’s follow-up study of the voters’ list indicates that there are still many eligible voters who have been left out of the FER.

Fafen’s follow-up study checked both the CNIC numbers and names of voters from its June 2007 ‘People-to-List’ audit. The results show that the FER 2008 includes at least 9.3 per cent duplicate records (with 4.17 per cent of the names or CNIC numbers listed at least more than once). Out of a total of 82 million records on the final voters’ list, as many as 7.5 million are estimated to be duplicates.

The percentage of duplicate CNIC records (same CNIC number issued to more than one person) on the ECP database was found by Fafen’s follow-up study to be 1.55 per cent, or as many as 1.26 million records out of a total of 81 million on the FER.

Sarwar Bari said the ECP should clarify whether voters should have an NIC or CNIC to vote on February 18. If so, all eligible voters added since 2002 without an NIC or CNIC would still be disenfranchised.

In that case, the ‘Supplemental List’ process of September-October 2007 was both a waste of time and resources and not in keeping with the spirit of the 2007 Supreme Court ruling about the voters’ list, which required the ECP to ensure that a maximum number of eligible voters could participate in the election.

He said the ECP should give clear instructions to all presiding officers in advance to ensure that the required identity document of every voter was compared carefully with the information in the FER.

Polling officials should follow a “uniform, observable procedure” in the polling stations to avoid disenfranchising some registered voters or allowing unregistered people to vote based on partisan considerations or because of “inappropriate influence from candidates or others”.

He said the integrity of the 2007 draft electoral roll should be maintained, with the supplemental names from the 2002 list kept separate. After the general election, a voters’ list reform initiative should be undertaken based on the accurate, though incomplete, 2007 draft list. “The 2008 FER should not be used after the general election 2008 for any purpose.”

He said Fafen had long-term observers working in almost 264 of the 272 National Assembly constituencies for the general election. The only exceptions were eight “unsafe” areas of Fata.

He said Fafen would deploy about 20,000 short-term election observers on the election day, or approximately 75 observers in each of about 260 National Assembly constituencies (at least three constituency elections would be delayed because of Benazir Bhutto’s death and the death of another candidate).

Stationary observers will be posted in a statistical random selection of 8,000 polling stations around the country. ‘Mobile observers’ will visit briefly as many as 40,000 (out of a total of 65,000) polling stations. Observers will wear Fafen caps or ‘chadors.’

One observer in each pair will monitor a men’s polling booth; the other will monitor a women’s polling booth. Their observations of each stage of the election day will be documented in a set of multi-coloured checklists, which will be sent back to the Fafen secretariat at the end of the day.

Fafen’s officials said that its “innovative voter education campaign — focusing on general, women’s, and youth voter education — has reached as many as 2,500 union councils”. The Fafen voter education personnel are emphasising new aspects of the electoral process (such as transparent ballot boxes), broader civic education themes, and the ECP code of conduct.

The NGOs working with Fafen are organising the first nationwide ‘Meet the Candidates’ public forums for National Assembly candidates. All candidates running for a National Assembly seat are invited to answer voters’ questions in their respective constituencies.