ISLAMABAD: Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Secretary Omar Hameed Khan said Monday that since over nine lakh [0.9 million] voters could not be verified during the review of electoral rolls, their polling stations had been fixed in accordance with their permanent addresses given on their computerised national identity cards (CNICs).
He stated this during a news conference here at the Election Commission Secretariat. He explained that the Election Act 2017 came into force on October 2, as per Section 27, which says that a vote can only be registered at a permanent or a temporary address given on the voter’s CNIC.
ECP Special Secretary Zafar Iqbal Husain also spoke at the news conference. Omar Hameed pointed out that as part of the process, voters, who had registered their votes at a third address, were given legal protection till Dec 31, 2017. The Election Commission launched a campaign to revise the electoral rolls in 2019 under which all such persons were shifted from the third address to a temporary or permanent address.
He said that to give an opportunity to correct the rules, the Election Commission had decided to revise electoral rolls across the country under Section 17 of the Election Act, 2017 in October 2021. For the purpose, the Election Commission had made deployments across the country and it was a major exercise.
Giving the figures, he said that 142 registration officers, more than 2,000 assistant officers, over 1,800 assistant registration officers, 67,000 verifiers had been deployed across the province with a total number of 88,639. He said that the process of revision was started from October 8, 2021 while door-to-door verification process was completed from Nov 7 to Dec 21 in 2021, with 121.1 million voters.
He noted that for convenience of people, the Election Commission had made the SMS 8300 service absolutely free of cost from Nov 26 to Dec 31, 2021, so that more and more people could get their names known in the lists.
He said that during door-to-door verification, about 98.4 million voters were confirmed at their permanent and temporary address, during which four million people were confirmed dead, and 159 voters could not be confirmed.
The ECP secretary said that during the first phase, the Election Commission had launched door-to-door verification to ensure the presence of unverified voters in their exact constituencies from March 4 to 18. He said another 15 million voters were confirmed during this phase, during which 9.5 lakh voters could not be registered. After this process, the Election Commission appointed polling stations of 9.5 lakh voters as per thepermanent address on their identity cards.
The ECP secretary said that after verification made in both the phases, the lists of voters had been displayed at display centres across the country. As per the decision of the Divisional Authority, the electoral rolls would be published on August 12, 2022 after all electoral rolls are amended. He said that there are 45 days for voter data correction applications and revision decisions that will end on July 7, 10 days are required to amend non-final electoral rolls which will conclude by July 14, 2022.
Omar Hameed said that the total number of males among voters across the country is more than 60 million. Similarly, the total number of voters, including women is more than 120 million. He said that if citizens need correction in electoral rolls, they may submit forms 15 and 16 to the display centre.
The ECP secretary confirmed that around 150 out of area voters from Sindh including an MPA had been reported deceased during the verification exercise, but explained the mistake stood corrected now. Asked as to what was being done to minimise human error, the secretary said, “We have taken departmental action to rectify the mistakes”.
On the voice being raised against flaws in the electoral rolls, the ECP secretary conceded there were mistakes in it, but stressed that the cooperation of voters was required to make the lists error-free.
It was explained that under Section 27 of the Elections Act 2017, the voters could only be registered at their permanent or temporary addresses, mentioned on their computerised national identity cards. Some of the complaints about enrolment of members of a family in different constituencies, the press conference was told had been examined and it was found out that one of the members after moving to some other area had opted to get registered at the place he had moved.
He said there could be mistakes in the electoral rolls, which could only be corrected with the help of the voters concerned. He advised people to visit display centres and get information on their vote through 8300 SMS service.
However, he regretted that some political circles were creating doubts about changes in electoral rolls in 20 constituencies of Punjab Assembly where by-polls were to take place on July 17.
To a question, he said the ECP was a constitutional body and not a political institution and added the ECP would continue to discharge its duties in accordance with the constitution and the law.
About the electronic voting machines, Omar Hamid said work on new technologies would continue regardless of which political party is in power. He said multiple pilots will be carried out before using the machines in polls stressing that “many protocols have to be followed and many safeguards have to be passed through”. He said the ECP would continue to make efforts to bridge the gender gap among voters, pointing out that the already underway efforts had helped reduce gap between male and female voters. Likewise, Omar Hameed added the Commission will also focus on vulnerable groups including the disabled. He said the ECP had plans to go to 14 districts of Balochistan to work in collaboration with development partners to reduce the gender gap among voters.
