PESHAWAR: The deletion of over 30.71 unverified voters from the electoral rolls of 2007 by Election Commission would definitely help strengthen democratic forces in the country as the possibility of bogus voting is likely to be eliminated completely.Making Computerised National Identity Cards (CNIC) as mandatory for registration of a voter is key for ensuring transparent electoral rolls.Political parties are fully supporting and also motivating the people to register themselves as voter for strengthening democratic system and eliminating the chances of fake voting.ECP has also finalised a plan to motivate youth, minority, women and marginalised segments of society to convince them to register themselves as voters and help change the destiny of the country.
The election commission with the help of National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) is preparing transparent database in the ongoing door to door voters verification campaign. According to official sources, the verification campaign has been completed 45 per cent till Saturday (Aug 17).It is for the first time in the history of Pakistan that such electoral rolls database is being prepared, which will eliminate the possibility of double and bogus voter lists.The dubious votes have already been deleted in collaboration with NADRA as they do not possess Computerised National Identity Cards (CNIC).Most of the deleted votes had double entries, old National Identity Card, most of the entrants may be dead or migrated but the heirs did not report to ECP for deleting their names from the voter lists.
According to voter lists of 2007, the number of total eligible voters was 80.12 million. After verification, National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) declared 30.71 voters as unverified because no record existed in NADRA.NADRA has credible data of over 93 per cent Pakistanis.Out of 80.1213 million votes NADRA declared 40.40 million voters as valid. However it added 30.67 million voters for having valid CNIC.Thus NADRA prepared draft electoral rolls containing 80.0724 million as eligible voters.ECP expects the number of registered voters to be around 83 million, as its massive campaign of door-to-door verification of electoral rolls completed 45 per cent.
The massive campaign would be continued till September 30.In Punjab, as many as 10.84 million voters were declared as unverified out of a total of 40.52 million.NADRA augmented 20.023 million voters pushing the total voters in draft electoral rolls to 40.71 million.The rolls are being verified nowadays by ECP in its door-to-door campaign.Similarly in Sindh total unverified voters were 10.06 million out of a total of 10.98 million voters as per list of 2007.After verification NADRA added 8.62 million voters.Total voters of Sindh as per NADRA record are 10.78 million.
NADRA had declared 4.7 million voters of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as unverified out of a total of 10.08 million voters as per list of 2007.NADRA also added 5.513 million in the draft electoral rolls 2011. Thus declaring 10.17 million as total eligible voters of the province.As many as 788,655 voters from Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) were deleted by declaring them as unverified.While the total voters as per list of 2007 were 1.28 million.After verification NADRA has enhanced 7,59,775 voters declaring a total of 10.25 million voters as eligible voters.
The number of deleted voters from Balochistan is 2.77 million out of a total of 4.229 million eligible voters as per year 2007 lists.After verification NADRA added 1.55 million voters thus declaring only 3.005 million as eligible voters.Total voters as per NADRA were 80.072 million.While a total of 30.67 million were enhanced after deleting 30.71 million due to invalid identity cards, double entry, etc.And total voters as per list of 2007 were 80.1213 million.The verification of computerised electoral rolls based on database of NADRA would ensure transparency in election process and give people right to elect their representatives.
For door-to-door campaign, the country has been divided into 1,45,000 census block.One Census Block contains 200 to 250 houses or 1200 to 1500 people. The important exercise would continue till September 30.National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) will start publishing Draft Electoral Rolls as soon the verification process completes.The draft voter lists would be displayed for 21 days.Another voters list would be published, most probably in December.The people would be given 21 days to rectify mistakes if any in the electoral rolls.The final voter lists would be published in April 2012.It is pertinent to mention here that the ECP with the help of NADRA is preparing transparent database and the CNIC number would be used as a unique identifier for the existing voters’ list to discourage the trend of fake voting and to avoid double entry. – Statesman
