ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has directed all provincial election commissioners (PECs) to execute revision of electoral rolls in the light of new census results and complete necessary preparations for the next general elections till May 1, 2018.
Documents available with Pakistan Today reveal that ECP while directing revision in electoral rolls-2017 to the PECs has ordered the enrollment of approximately 0.5 million new CNIC holders as voters after their door-to-door verification. It has also ordered exclusion of deceased voters after door-to-door verification/confirmation from family besides exclusion of disqualified voters (i-e nationality surrender cases and cancelled NICs)
According to a copy of ECP’s letter issued to the PECs, adjustment of census blocks according to census blocks schedule-2017 has been notified by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) along with the display of electoral rolls of all census blocks for inviting claims, objections, and applications for correction of the vote.
The process is scheduled to start from January 8 and will complete until May 1, 2018.
As per a report of PBS, adjustment of census blocks according to census blocks schedule-2017 has been notified while the display of new electoral rolls will be made from January 8 till February 6, 2018, after necessary door-to-door verification. Similarly, objections will be gathered and a correction in electoral rolls will be done till February 16, 2018.
Moreover, data entry, printing and transfers of revised electoral rolls to the concerned centres will be completed till April 10, 2018.
It is worth mentioning here that all the five elected assemblies of the country will complete their constitutional terms in the last week of May 2018. The five-year constitutional term of the National Assembly and the Punjab Assembly will end on May 31 while those of the Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan assemblies will end on May 28.
Under the new powers conferred to the ECP by the Elections Act, 2017, the election staff would be under direct control of the commission and it could penalise the violators as per efficiency and disciplinary rules. Furthermore, the use of biometric and electronic machines is not possible for the forthcoming polls as the two systems had been tried in the by-polls only for study purposes.