7.8m voters included, 0.5m removed from new voter lists

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday decided to update, synchronise and revise the electoral rolls to include around 7.8 million new voters and remove 500,000 votes from the electoral database.
To this effect, Chief Election Commissioner Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza Khan chaired a meeting here at the Election Commission Secretariat, which was attended, among others, by the four Election Commission Members — Riaz Kayani, Roshan Essani, Shahzad Akbar Khan and Fazlur Rehman.
The meeting was also attended by Usman Yousaf Mobin, Chairman Nadra, along with his team members. Syed Sher Afgan, Acting Secretary, and other senior officers of the ECP were also present in the meeting.
The updating, synchronisation and revision of electoral rolls in general and for the forthcoming local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in particular were discussed threadbare.
The meeting decided that approximately 7.8 million people, who were issued CNICs by the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) after general election 2013, would be included in the voter lists. Moreover, about 0.5 million or more deceased and disqualified voters would be excluded from the lists.
“We intend to include 1.2 million new voters in the lists so that they could take part in the local government election in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in April for which we plan to issue guidelines to the province shortly,” said a senior ECP official while talking to The News here.Likewise, the local government elections in Punjab and Sindh, he pointed out, would also be conducted with the inclusion of 6.6 million new voters in due course of time.
The provincial chapters of the Election Commission, he noted, would be asked to initially display the voter lists so that corrections or adjustments could be made. He said that some 80 percent voters were usually registered as per their permanent address.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission issued a list of 184 candidates, who are in the field for the Senate’s 52 seats in the upcoming election on March 5. As many as 118 have filed nomination papers for 33 general seats: 28 candidates are in the field for nine seats of the Senate reserved for women.
Similarly, there are 26 candidates for eight seats of the technocrats while another 12 for two seats for non-Muslims. Half of the total 104 members of the Senate will exhaust their term by March 11.
The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz has fielded 32 candidates, followed by PPP with 19 and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf with 11 candidates. Interestingly, there are as many as 64 independents in the run, of which 43 are from the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas.
“The lists containing names and other particulars of candidates have been forwarded to various government departments, including NAB and FBR and we expect their input within 24 hours,” ECP sources maintained. “It will be shared with the concerned returning officers for scrutiny.”
They clarified that the Election Commission was not conducting a scrutiny of candidates but assisting the returning officers when they scrutinise their particulars, as it was their job. Respective government departments, in line with the instructions by the Election Commission, have already appointed focal persons for the job. This kind of scrutiny is being conducted for the first time.The February 28 is the last date for the withdrawal of nomination papers while on the same day, the final list of candidates will be issued while polling will be held on March 5.