ISLAMABAD, Aug 17: The National Database Registration Authority (Nadra) has issued the final electoral rolls for general election in the capital, a source in Election Commission office here told this reporter on Saturday.
According to the final rolls, some 386,000 registered voters can exercise their right of franchise in the two constituencies of Islamabad, NA-48 and NA-49.
The source said Nadra had prepared electoral rolls in April 2002. However there were a number of discrepancies in the rolls, which were sorted out by the Election Commission. “Underage people, residents of other parts of the country or people otherwise ineligible had been included in the rolls,” the source said.
Some 99 registration centres were set up in Islamabad where people lodged their objections to the fresh electoral rolls.
Elaborating the procedure of preparing final lists, the source said if an objection was raised against any voter, he or she had to appear before returning officers to prove his or her eligibility to vote.
It is for the first time that electoral rolls of people as young as 18 years have been prepared in Islamabad. In other parts of the country, electoral rolls of people aged 18 years and above have already been prepared for local government elections.
In Islamabad, the number of registered voters aged 21 and above has also gone up to 340,500 from 233,822 in the previous election.
Two additional district and session judges of Islamabad have been appointed as returning officers for polls in the capital. Additional District and Sessions Judge Sana Ullah Malik is the returning officer for NA-49 and Additional District and Sessions Judge Chaudhry Mohammad Younis for NA-48.
No nomination paper was filed on the first day set aside for the purpose on Saturday. However, some aspirants obtained nomination papers from the returning officers’ offices.
Some 50 nomination papers in Urdu and English have been provided to each returning officer. The security fee for getting a paper is Rs4,000.
According to the election schedule, the last date for submitting nomination papers is August 24.