Says clouds cast on fairness of polls becoming thicker every day

 

Islamabad, 10 July 2007: The Pakistan Peoples has expressed concern over the continued inaction by the Election Commission to correct discrepancies in the voters’ lists saying, “the clouds cast on fairness of polls are becoming darker and thicker with each passing day”.

 

In a statement today spokesperson of the Party said that the findings of survey conducted by NDI in 19 districts of the country and released to the media today have endorsed the fears expressed earlier by PPP and called upon the EC to urgently address the issues raised.

 

The NDI survey said, “Our findings confirm the concerns and questions being raised about the accuracy and completeness of the preliminary voters’ lists”. The NDI survey revealed that thirty percent of the voters are missing and another 26 percent of the names in the lists are either incorrect or have duplicate entries.

 

He deplored that no action had been taken by the Election Commission on the letter written to it by the Party Chairperson Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto last month to remedy the flaws. She had also asked the ECP to provide a copy of the law that was claimed to forbid providing draft electoral rolls to the political parties, he said.

“Despite passage of more than two weeks the EC has not provided copy of the law that is claimed to forbid providing provisional lists in electronic format to the parties”, he said.

 

He said the voters also must be told in advance where to cast their votes. For this purpose name of the voter and the corresponding polling station should be placed on the ECP Web page in advance, he said.

 

Similarly, any changes in the location of polling stations and the area assigned to each polling station should also be posted on the Web page.

 

He said that the enrolment as a voter should not be dependant solely upon the prior production of NADRA ID card and. Any other official document like the passport or driving/arms license be also accepted for enrolment as a voter, he said, adding “issuance of free identity cards is important but is not sufficient”.

 

He said that political parties must also be allowed access to the data entry centres to ally fears of pre-poll computer rigging.

 

He said that the Party had received information that the computerisation of eligible voters had been entrusted to Expert Systems who were also the consultants to NADRA. The Expert Systems is reported to have taken the NADRA record and deleted all eligible voters who did not have the identity cards. “Those deleted voters should also be restored”.

 

Go Back