KARACHI, Oct 2: Reservations expressed by some political parties about then veracity of electoral rolls after the ongoing verification drive was also taken into consideration when the Election Commission at its meeting held in Islamabad decided to extend the date for the process because of the devastation caused by heavy rains in Sindh, law and order problems in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and outbreak of dengue fever in Punjab.
Sindh Election Commissioner Sono Khan Baloch said on Sunday the meeting presided over by Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Hamid Ali Mirza had decided that the commission would meet again by the end of October to review the situation and ensure that no eligible voter was left un-enrolled. Dawn
Talking to , he said if water did not recede from the flooded areas by then and all displaced people did not return to their homes, the date could be further extended in certain areas.
However, Mr Baloch said he was optimistic that with the situation improving in Sindh the verification would be completed and draft rolls would be ready for display by the given time. Replying to a question, he said the extension of the date for verification would not affect preparations for the general elections because 60 to 70 per cent work had been completed in the provinces.
If the names of some members of a family were missing, they could submit fresh forms for inclusion into the list, he said, adding that the decision had helped overcome confusion and verification of the remaining 30 to 40 per cent would be completed by the extended date and the final rolls would be ready before the elections due in 2013.
About complaints of a large increase in the number of census blocs, he said the census authorities had informed the meeting that the reason for increasing the number in Karachi and other towns where apartment blocks were replacing single-storey houses was a decision to count each apartment as a separate unit, while in earlier housing censuses every site had been taken as one unit despite having scores of apartments.
The electoral rolls were provided by Nadra for verification after matching with its database the rolls prepared in 2007 and handed over in February by the Election Commission. In the 2007 rolls the total number of voters was 81 million but only 44 million of them matched the database of computerised national identity cards. In Sindh, the names of 9.7 million of the 19.5 million voters on the rolls did not match with the CNIC lists.