ECP to register non-registered voters till mid-October’
NATHIAGALI: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will register all non-registered voters till mid-October in the computerised voter lists, said ECP Joint Secretary RB Jan Wahidi on Sunday.
“The ECP has started comparing the voter lists of 2002 and 2007 for enrolment of the non-registered voters upon Supreme Court directives,” Wahidi told at a question-hour session of the three-day workshop on ‘Election Reporting Training for Print Journalists’, organised by non-government organisation Intermedia, in collaboration with the British High Commission.
“The teams constituted by the ECP to identify millions of non-registered voters will complete its work till September 5. The ECP will include the names of non-registered voters in the 2007 electoral list after identification,” Wahidi added.
The ECP, he said, would check the dual registration of voters after completion of the voter lists and would take action against the violators in accordance with the law.
According to data reported by various organisations, there are 86 million illegible voters (18 years old). In the 2002 voter lists, there are 73 million voters, while the ECP had registered 56 million voters in the new computerised electoral lists. There are over 30 million eligible voters who are yet to be registered.
On August 11, the Supreme Court ordered the Election Commission of Pakistan to enroll the remaining voters within 30 days and to enroll the names of the women voters whose names were struck off from the voter lists in Frontier, Balochistan and Punjab provinces, and adjourned the hearing for six weeks.
To a question, Wahidi refuted the allegations that the ECP was an agent of intelligence agencies, saying these allegations were based on mere speculations, “as no one had valid proofs about it.”
“The ECP was not responsible for cheating outside the polling stations by the political activists,” he said. He, however, did not comment on a question that whether or not the ECP would take action against President Pervez Musharraf if he campaigned for the ruling party during the upcoming general elections. To another question, he replied that the ECP was a financially independent organisation and had never demanded financial assistance from the government. He also said the ECP was more powerful than Election Commission of India (ECI). “The ECP is headed by retired and serving judges, while ECI is headed by civil servants.”
Source: Daily Times
Date:8/27/2007
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