- Voter registration mishap upsets thousands of voters
- ‘Not our fault. Voters provided wrong data,’ says ECP spokesman
With just three days to the elections, wrong vote registration troubles voters as the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has stopped transferring votes.
The flawed vote registration system denies people votes in their hometowns. “These problems occurred because the ECP prepared voter lists based on CNIC data,” said ECP spokesman Khursheed Alam.
The ECP had limited resources and all individuals could not be reached. Thus, their votes were registered against their permanent addresses,” he added.
Haji Omar Khan of Quetta city said, “I have no family or property in Malir, and despite several requests, the ECP has not registered my family’s votes to Quetta.”
He claimed that massive polls rigging will ensue as voters will not be there to prevent bogus votes casting.
“The ECP officials asked me to submit a new application form for registering our votes. I followed the procedure but our votes have still not been transferred,” he added.
Rawalpindi resident Sadia Khan had a similar complaint:”my family’s votes have been registered in Multan while we have been living here since ten years. My husband registered a complaint with the ECP and we were assured of vote transfer, but later we were told that the deadline had expired and nothing can be done.”
ECP spokesman Khursheed Alam admitted receiving thousands of complaints regarding this matter.
He said that people submitted incorrect information to the ECP and they could approach the courts if dissatisfied with the ECP.
He added that the ECP launched an awareness campaign in September 2011 for verifying voters’ data.
