LAHORE, Oct 10: People were seen cursing the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) when they failed to find their names in the voters’ lists at polling stations close to their homes on Thursday.
Heated debates were reported over this issue between the polling staff and activists of various political parties.
The Election Commission has used computerized electoral rolls for the first time in Election 2002 and allotted every voter a computer number.
At least 10 per cent of the voters returned home without casting their votes when the polling staff refused to accommodate them saying that their computer numbers in the lists were different from the numbers mentioned in the slips provided to them by supporters of various contestants, claimed the media cell of Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf.
In NA-122, such complaints were more numerous, as some families had half of their members listed at one polling station and the rest at some other.
In NA-127, women voters of Pakistan Awami Tehrik were seen weeping outside Polling Station No 154 after being denied entry to the polling booth. They said it was the third polling station in the area they had visited to try cast their vote.
Similar complaints were also received from Union Council Nos 129 and 135.
The revised demarcation of constituencies after increase in the number of seats only confounded the problem as it resulted in a new polling scheme.
In the past, political parties used to furnish ballot slips at voters’ homes, but this time they failed to facilitate the people in this regard.
According to the PPP media cell, the Election Commission authorities changed the location of polling station Nos 29 and 30 in NA-121 at 11:30 on Wednesday night and that of station Nos 84, 94 and 95 at 10:30 on Thursday morning.
It also claimed that polling did not start at NA-122’s station No 174 till 10:30am due to unavailability of a proper place. The polling was started after erection of cloth sheets outside the proposed site at Dharampura School.
The people who got computerized identity cards after they had been enlisted as voters on the basis of manually registered NICs also faced difficulty in persuading the polling staff into allowing them their right to vote due to different number of the NICs in their possession.
The polling staff refused to accept photocopies of NICs or other documents like driving licences, birth certificates and educational certificates for identification of voters.