Nadra providing help to ECP in preparation of Draft Electoral Rolls
National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) is providing support to Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in preparation of Draft Electoral Rolls after ECP deleted 37 million unverified votes from Final Electoral Rolls 2007. “Nadra has verified the electoral rolls and helped the ECP to remove the anomalies and also help the ECP in printing fresh electoral rolls,” said Tariq Malik, Deputy Chairman, Nadra while talking to Business Recorder on Friday.
The ECP has accepted the services of Nadra and the members of the ECP have given final approval to 23 business rules for the two organisations, Malik said, adding both the organisations would work under these business rules for preparing error-free electoral rolls.
He said that the ECP has informed the Supreme Court of Pakistan that 37 million unverified votes would be removed from the electoral rolls, while in place of them 35 million people who got registered with Nadra database after 2008 general elections would be included.
Responding to a question, Nadra deputy chief said that people registered with national database and were not in electoral rolls would also be considered for entry in the Draft Electoral Rolls 2011. Malik said that the ECP has provided Nadra the final electoral rolls 2007 having 81,213741 entries, which were matched with Nadra database and only 44,027,743 entries were found correct while 37,185,998 could not be verified. “After verification of the electoral rolls provided by ECP Nadra augmented such CNICs that were not present in the final electoral rolls 2007,” he added.
In the meantime, Population Census Organisation (PCO) conducted a household census in the country and increased the census blocks from 104,000 to 145,000, Malik said, adding that these census blocks have to be incorporated in the process of new electoral rolls preparations and ECP Performa containing the CNICs with respective census block code was already given during the Household Census.
He said that Nadra is in process of scanning and data entry from these ECP Performas and this digitised data would be made available for Draft Electoral Rolls 2011. This data would be used by ECP for door-to-door verification exercise, he added. The door-to-door verification campaign would be started by ECP from July 18, in which 100,000 people would be mobilised for the purpose.
“We have set a goal to complete the process of preparing computerised electoral rolls before the end of December 2011,” Malik said. Computerised electoral rolls based on database of Nadra would ensure transparency in election process and give people the right to elect their representatives, Malik said, adding that declaring the CNIC mandatory for registration of voter and for casting votes is key to make electoral rolls reliable.
He said that after re-demarcation and expansion of number of Census Blocks from 102,000 to 145,000 by Statistics Division, Nadra would give people having two addresses, an option to get registered as voter at their place of choice. The Statistics Division also wants to expand the present Census Blocks to include more voters in a block, he added.
One Census Block contains 200 to 250 houses or 1200 to 1500 people and the Census Department wants to expand these blocks, which will change the composition of polling stations and cause confusion in voting, Malik said. He said that the Nadra has asked the Statistics Division to provide the up-to-date list of demarcated Census Blocks and circles along with relevant maps for official use and guidance during enumeration process.
Source: Business Recorder
Date:7/9/2011
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