National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) Chairman Tariq Malik said on Tuesday that for the first time in the history of the country the general elections are going to be held on the basis of “One person, one CNIC and one vote” policy, as each CNIC holder is an eligible voter and each voter entry will be backed by NADRA’s biometric system during polls.
He was talking to European Election Observer Mission Deputy Chief to Pakistan Hannah Roberts, who called on him along with EU delegation here at NADRA headquarters.
Briefing the mission, the NADRA chairman said, “Credible, fair and accurate rolls were the benchmarks for ensuring a transparent election process. In this regard a number of tangible steps were taken for the preparation of electoral rolls in 2012.”
However, throughout the electoral history of Pakistan until 2008 elections, the electoral rolls were prepared only through door-to-door enumeration and there was clear absence of any authentic data to back up the entire process, he added.
The NADRA chairman informed the delegation that during the digitalisation and scanning process undertaken by the NADRA, the data of approximately 81.2 million voters was compiled during the preparation of previous electoral rolls that were later transferred to the NADRA for verification by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). All such records which were not backed by a legitimate CNIC were removed, he added.
He further said that since holding of a CNIC was declared to be a prerequisite for registration as voter, consequently 15 million without identity, nine million duplicates, and 13 million invalid identities were expunged from the records.
Besides this, he said that 36 million people were found to be in possession of valid CNICs, yet they were disenfranchised. “Those 36 million new entries were added to the Final Electoral Rolls,” he added. He further informed that 2.24 million dead-voters were removed from the electoral rolls on the basis of Civil Registration Management System (CRMS) and death registration available with NADRA database.
He also apprised the mission that a total of 86,189,751 voters have been registered in the updated electoral rolls, out of which total voters from Punjab were 49.25 million, 18.96 million from Sindh, 3.33 million from Balochistan, 12.26 million from Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, 1.73 million from the federally administered tribal areas, and a total of 0.6 million voters from Islamabad.
Furthermore, Malik said that for the first time in the history of country, female registration had almost been doubled in the last four years. The total number of registered women voters was 86% in 2012 as compared to 50% in 2008, thus amounting to 37.59 million women voters.
Moreover, the NADRA chairman also highlighted the mechanism of photo electoral rolls that were introduced to bring transparency and accuracy to the entire election process. He said the presiding officer would have access to photo electoral rolls that would help in establishing the identities of voters before issuance of ballot papers. A record of left thumb prints would also be made possible through magnetic ink which would be matched with the biometrics of voters soon after the elections, he added.
