ISLAMABAD, July 7: The Election Commission is investigating a difference of nine million voters between the updated electoral lists for the local government polls and those prepared for the 2002 general election, sources have told Dawn.

Despite considerable increase in population, the lists updated during revision of electoral rolls for the coming elections showed a lower number of voters than in lists prepared three years ago, they said. The rolls for the 2002 election showed 72 million registered voters.

Acting Chief Election Commissioner Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, while announcing the elections schedule on June 30, said that 63.68 million people would exercise their right of vote during the local government polls.

The difference is despite the fact that 1.5 million new voters were enrolled during the updating of the rolls. The total of 63,681,072 votes is nine million less than the figure for the general election.

If the current list is defective than it would mean that nine million voters may not be able to cast their votes, the source feared.

The sources said that the electoral rolls for the 2000-1 local government elections, which were compiled by the Nadra on the basis of the 1998 census, had 61.9 million voters.