ISLAMABAD – Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is set to start the training of 55,000 Display Centre officials from current week.
An official of ECP told APP here that the training of the officials of Display Centers would be completed within a three to four days. The main objective of the display centers would be to correct mistakes, register objections in the preliminary electoral rolls within 21 days, he said.
The display centers are likely to be established after mid January as National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) is understood to complete the publishing of preliminary electoral rolls by mid-January. The 55,000 Display Centers, consisting of one official each would be established in prominent places of country’s 130 districts. The Centers would be set up in mosques, schools, post offices and other places.
The preliminary electoral rolls would be displayed in the centers for 21 days. Each center has been mandated to enlist the names of the voters, whose names have been missed erroneously or otherwise in the voter lists.
Revising Authorities are being appointed to hear the objections in voters lists. The revising authorities are likely to decide the disputes within a fortnight. Candidates and political parties can obtain voter lists from the display centers by paying money, he said.
The Final Electoral Rolls (FERs) of 2011 may be delayed by Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
The final electoral rolls would be published in April as the ECP would have to follow the rules, he said.
The whole process of establishing display centers and removing anomalies would be completed in minimum 40 days - that too when NADRA hands over the preliminary electoral rolls by mid January, he said.
“If NADRA hands over preliminary electoral rolls by January 15 - another 40 days are needed to complete the constitutional Requirements including establishment of display centers and appointment of revising authorities to remove the people’s objection in preliminary electoral rolls,” he said. Time is also needed to fulfill other various requirements, so the final electoral rolls would be published by April 2012, he said.
“Nadra has received 84 million forms for correction of permanent addresses in voters’ lists and still receiving huge data for correction,” a NADRA official said. He said about 17 districts had been affected by recent floods, so collection of data from these districts is quite difficult. According to ECP data about 80 million voters has registered in Draft Electoral Roll (DER-2011), while NADRA augmented about 30 million voters in DERs-2011.
Similarly, 30 million voters could not be unverified through FERs of 2007.
While in Punjab 40 million, Sindh about 10 million, KP about 10 million, Baluchistan 3 million and in Fata 1.2 million voters have been registered in DERs-2011.