CGEP NEWS AND EVENTS

Jun 25, 2007

Citizens Group asks CEC to hold all-party consultation on Electoral Rolls; Offers 6-point proposals to address electoral rolls crisis

Islamabad, June 25; The Citizens Group on Electoral Process – CGEP has asked the Chief Election Commissioner to urgently hold an all-party consultation on the issue of electoral rolls and take a pro-active approach to addressing the citizens concerns over the disenfranchising of over 20 million voters through the Preliminary Electoral Rolls.

According to recent data released by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) about the Preliminary Electoral Rolls, there are 52,102,428 voters recorded in the Preliminary Electoral Rolls 2007. This is apparently 20 million short of the number of eligible voters in 2002. That means that nearly 30% of all voters would be disenfranchised.

In a letter written to the Chief Election Commissioner Justice (Retd.) Qazi Muhammad Farooq, the CGEP maintained that it was greatly concerned that the “ECP does not seem sufficiently concerned” about such a massive disenfranchisement. While several political parties and citizens’ groups have expressed public concern on the matter, “the ECP has shown little interest in initiating a proper process of consultation with them, the letter stated. “The gravity of situation, which has the potential to jeopardise the upcoming General Election, demands that you, as the Chief Election Commissioner, should personally intervene to address the situation. Unfortunately we do not see any evidence of a serious response from the Election Commission,” the CGEP held in the letter.

Proposing 6 steps that the CEC should immediately take regarding the preliminary electoral rolls, the CGEP suggested that:

1.         The ECP should immediately begin a process of consultation on preliminary electoral rolls with all the stakeholders especially the political parties to find an amicable solution to ensure that error-free and inclusive electoral rolls are available in time for upcoming elections at the earliest.

2.         The Election Commission should seriously re-consider its decision to reject the possibility of using NADRA’s database as one of the basis of electoral rolls. Even at this late stage, the Election Commission should not rule out the possibility of working with NADRA to refine electoral rolls. In view of the task and time limitations, the capacity of NADRA should be enhanced so that it can issue CNIC to all who are eligible to vote in the forthcoming elections.

3.         In the interest of transparency the Election Commission should provide preliminary electoral rolls on its website and provide complete copies of the preliminary rolls on CDs to any citizen or party that wishes to obtain it.

4.         The last date for filing complaints or applications for addition/ modification of eligible voters’ names in the preliminary electoral rolls should be extended beyond July 3, as seems necessary in the current circumstances. In addition, the ECP should take urgent steps to simplify the cumbersome and complicated process of registration of new voters or the correction/objection process to those already registered.

5.         The task of preparing computerised electoral rolls has, reportedly cost Rs. 1 Billion. Despite spending the huge amount of money on this work, the project has seen inordinate delay with no final date of completion of work in sight. The quality of work, instead of inspiring confidence, has further damaged the public confidence in the electoral process in general and in the electoral rolls in particular. The Citizens Group demands that the CEC should urgently inquest the matter and make public the detail of spending on the project with its deadlines and accomplishments.

6.         The CGEP members have personally experienced that the system of entertaining public complaints etc at the ECP Display Centres is deeply flawed, disorganised and almost non-functional. The designated staff is generally absent but not found after 12 mid-day in particular although they are supposed to be present at display centres up to 5 pm. On Sundays, when ECP announces that the display centres will remain open, there is hardly a display centre that is open and manned on Sundays. The staff at the Display Centre is poorly trained / briefed and is generally demoralised. In any case, a citizen who makes the effort of visiting a display centre can neither register his/her name nor make any corrections at the display centres which defeats the whole process of creating access to citizens. With this state of affairs, it will be very difficult to update the preliminary electoral rolls in any meaningful way. It is imperative that the ECP improves the working at the Display Centres and widely publicizes their locations.

Offering its complete support and good wishes to the Election Commission of Pakistan for holding an efficiently managed free, fair and credible election, the CGEP letter stated that support from the citizens is the ECP’s key source of power to withstand unfair pressures from the ruling party as well as the opposition or any other quarters and the CEC should value it in the interest of the constitutional responsibilities of his office.

The CGEP, in a letter addressed to the CEC back in February 2007 had raised its concerns over the process of preparing electoral rolls. The letter was not officially acknowledged or responded to by the CEC. The Citizens Group has been working since December 2006 under the auspices of PILDAT.

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