Election Commision of Pakistan

Vote-checking through SMS from March 1

ISLAMABAD: Eligible voters can verify the status of their votes in the new computerised voter lists by sending an SMS to

 8300 via mobile phone from anywhere, any time across the country, an official of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) said. The official said that from March 1, the registered voters would be able to check the status of their votes and particulars through short messaging services (SMS) by just paying Rs 2 per SMS. As per procedure, an adult person by just sending his Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC) number to 8300 will subsequently receive a message of around 160 characters in Urdu. It will have the name, village/city, tehsil and district of the particular voter, location (electoral area) and serial number of vote registered in the preliminary electoral rolls, he said. The house number of voters will be kept confidential to ensure privacy and avoid misuse of the service, he said. He said after the introduction of the new service, it would be the responsibility of every eligible voter to make sure that his/her vote had been registered and to report any discrepancy to the ECP.

How to check Vote Status:

• SMS your CNIC to 8300
• You will get a reply with your vote status
• Service Charges: Rs. 2 plus tax

NADRA develops SMS service to verify voter registration

KARACHI: National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) has developed an SMS service application to facilitate citizens toverify their vote registration and particulars in the voters’ list. Deputy Chairman NADRA, Tariq Malik said NADRA and ECP signed agreements with telecom companies to forge a partnership in order to launch this service. “I congratulate UFone, WARID and Telenor who stood up and offer their platforms for this national interest and expect the companies who are sitting on fence to step up to the challenge and contribute on national cause” said Malik.

ECP drops 1m of 37 million unverified voters

ISLAMABAD – The Election Commission of Pakistan on Saturday released detailed district-wise break-up of the Electoral Rolls 2007, the number of unverified voters in ER 2007 and newly augmented voters in Electoral Rolls 2011. These details are also available at the ECP website www.ecp.gov.pk.

The Electoral Council of the ECP had decided in November 2009 to revise the computerised Electoral Rolls, 2007 in collaboration with NADRA using their CNICs as a unique identifier.

Secretary ECP Ishtiak Ahmad Khan said that the ECP handed over its database of Electoral Rolls-2007 to NADRA on February 11, 2011 for verification of voters against their database. NADRA reported back on 05/03/2011 that out of 81 million voters registered in Final Electoral Rolls 2007, 44 million voters were verified against CNIC database whereas approximately 37 million voters were not verified which was made public by the ECP through a press release dated March 8, 2011. According to details of these unverified voters, over 50 per cent voters in Balochistan and Sindh, 45 per cent voters in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and 40 per cent voters in Punjab were unverified. Of 60.5 million voters in Punjab, 8.3 milllion are unverified, of 10 million voters in KP, 4.6 million are unverified, Sindh’s 19.5 million voters had 9.7 million unverified voters while 4.2 million voters in Balochistan had about 2.8 million unverified voters. Islamabad’s 481000 voters had over fifty thousand unverified voters.

After deletion of these 37 million unverified voters from the Draft Electoral Rolls, 2011, NADRA added 36 million who had obtained CNICs after preparation of Electoral Rolls-2007. NADRA can provide evidence from its database with regard to 37 million unverified voters as well as 36 million voters who have been added into the Draft Electoral Rolls, 2011.

The Secretary ECP drew attention to section 26 of the Electoral Rolls Act 1974 according to which “An electoral roll shall not be invalid by reason of any misdescription of a person enrolled thereon or of omission of the name of any person to be so enrolled or of inclusion of the name of any person not so entitled”. Therefore, the Electoral Rolls, 2007 will remain intact until the electoral rolls being revised are finally published in 2012 by the Election Commission of Pakistan.

It may also be recalled that after release of information about unverified, deleted and augmented voters in March 2011, one Mubasher Lucman filed a constitutional petition No. 23/2011 in the Supreme Court of Pakistan seeking deletion of unverified voters from the Electoral Rolls, 2007. The ECP informed the apex court that necessary steps were being taken in collaboration with NADRA to revise the Electoral Rolls-2007 so as to clean them of all multiple entries and those who have died during the last three years and also to add those who had become eligible to be enrolled as voters. The apex court, after recording the statement of the Secretary ECP, disposed of the petition vide order dated March 31, 2011 and directed the ECP to fulfil its Constitutional commitments as early as could be possible.

Imran Khan, Chairman, Pakistan Tehreek Insaf, also filed a constitutional petition No. 31/2011 on 7th April 2011 in the Supreme Court for deletion of the unverified voters from the Electoral Rolls-2007 and incorporation of new eligible voters verified from NADRA’s database. The ECP apprised the Supreme Court that the unverified voters had already been deleted from the Draft Electoral Rolls, 2011, 36 million had been added therein and that the same would now be verified through door-to-door verification.

ECP to hold 4th consultative meeting with political parties on 13th Sep

ISLAMABAD: Ishtiak Ahmad Khan Secretary, Election Commission of Pakistan has said that ECP would hold 4th consultative meeting with political parties on 13th September (Tuesday) at 11:00 am in the ECP Secretariat, Islamabad about electoral rolls, 2011.

According to press release issued here on Saturday, Ishtiak Ahmad Khan Secretary, Election Commission of Pakistan has said that the ECP is taking steps to make the electoral process more effective, free, fair, transparent and credible for enhancing trust of the stakeholders.

As political parties are key stakeholders, therefore, their participation in democratic process is fundamental to the health of democracy. An open and transparent approach on part of the ECP is, therefore, essential to give the political parties a feeling of inclusiveness in the electoral process.   Ishtiaq said that the ECP has already held three consultative meetings with political parties wherein a number of important electoral issues were discussed, for example, making CNIC issued by NADRA a mandatory condition for registration of voters as well as casting of vote by amending the relevant law, adoption of Electronic Voting Machine, granting symbols to political parties permanently and preparation of computerized Electoral Rolls-2011 in collaboration with NADRA.   He also informed that the ECP is holding another consultative meeting with political parties on 13.9.2011 (Tuesday) at 11:00 am in the ECP Secretariat, Islamabad, with a view to share progress made with regard to revision of Electoral Rolls-2011 in collaboration with NADRA using latter’s CNIC Database. The Electoral Rolls-2011 will be based on new Census Blocks, recently demarcated by the Population Census Organization (PCO).

Through this consultative meeting, the ECP intends to share the Census Methodology used by the PCO to demarcate the new Census Blocks, the role of NADRA for voter registration in collaboration with ECP and the method adopted on ground verification process for revision of electoral rolls by field officers of the ECP.   Ishtiak said that the ECP has, therefore, invited two representatives from each Party to participate in the consultative meeting on 13.9.2011 wherein a detailed presentation will be given to the participants by the PCO, NADRA and ECP.

25 percent verification of electoral rolls completed

ISLAMABAD, Sep 6 (APP): From 20 to 25 percent verification of the ongoing electoral rolls have so far been completed across the country, Chief Election Commissioner was told in a meeting held here.   Chief Election Commissioner Justice ® Hamid Ali Mirza presided over the meeting. 

While provincial Election Commissioners, Chairman, Deputy Chairman National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), Chief Census Commissioner attended the meeting.
Chief Election Commissioner directed the concerned to complete the verification process by September 30.
The verification staff was directed to conduct the process in flood hit  areas relief camps also. The services of Frontier Constabulary should be hired in troubled areas.
NADRA chairman Ali Arshad Hakeem said NADRA will start publishing Draft Electoral Rolls as soon the process completes. The draft electoral lists would be displayed for 21 days, most probably in December.
The final voters lists would be published in March 2012. In the main lists photos of voters would also be affixed.
It is pertinent to mention here that the ECP with the help of NADRA is preparing transparent database and the CNIC number would be used as a unique identifier for the existing voters’ list to discourage the trend of fake voting and to avoid double entry.
It is for the first time in the history of Pakistan that such electoral rolls database is going to be prepared, which will eliminate all possibility of double and bogus voter lists.
For door to door campaign the country has been divided into 145000 census block.One Census Block contains 200 to 250 houses or 1200 to 1500 people.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) expects the number of registered voters to be around 83 million.The massive task of door-to-door verification of electoral rolls was started on Aug 22, involving 0.124 million manpower.
The campaign would be completed on September 30.

Electoral practices

The Election Commission of Pakistan, with the cooperation of Nadra, has begun the vital process of verifying and updating electoral rolls ahead of the next general election, which must be held by February 2013. The process is a vital one – given that our entire democratic process hinges on the casting of ballots based on these rolls. The ECP expects that some 83 million voters will cast their vote this time around. The process that has now begun is thus crucial. This is especially true in the context of our recent history and the allegations that fly around at election time. Allegations of foul play in the writing up of rolls, of names being taken off them or of bogus ones being added and of NICs – necessary for voting – being issued on political grounds, are widespread.

Foul play must not be allowed to compromise the upcoming elections process. The political tensions that already exist could foment very dangerous developments, including violence, if the elections are not held in a transparent and fair manner. We must hope the use of computerised cards verified by Nadra can help prevent wrongdoings. But even in this system, there are potential flaws. What we need in ideal terms is an independent, autonomous EC – as exists in India and many other nations – sadly, like others before it, this administration seems least interested in setting up such a body and ensuring that the electoral process is an uncontroversial one.

ECP constitutes 145000 Census Blocks for voter’s verification

ISLAMABAD, Aug 18 (APP):The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has constituted 145000 Census Blocks across the country for initiating door to door voters verification campaign from August 22.The spokesman of ECP told APP here that each Census Block has been consisted of 300 houses. While 211000 verifying officials have also been appointed to conduct verification of computerised voter lists.National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) has already handed over computerised draft electoral lists, he said.

The verification officials of 130 districts have been provided NADRA’s draft electoral rolls, along with the lists of 2007 to prepare authentic ones.
Responding to a question he said in some cases, NADRA has duplicate entries which will be removed after verification.
A mobile van will also accompany each verification team to include or remove a voter’s name immediately.
All regional offices of National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) would be handed over to ECP as the verification campaign starts.
The voters lists have also been sent to flood hit areas.
Meanwhile, the ECP is likely to initiate a media campaign from Monday urging people to register their votes.

Draft electoral rolls’ printing of 80 mln voters completed

ISLAMABAD, Aug 18 (APP): National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) has completed task of printing draft Electoral Rolls (ERs) of more than 80 million eligible voters.The Authority, under close supervision of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has printed draft ERs of all districts and transported to district elections offices.The same has been verified and received by district election staff, this  as announced here on Thursday.Computerized National Identify Card has been made mandatory to register and cast vote by legislation approved by parliament and hence civil registry is used to prepare draft electoral rolls.

A senior official on Thursday said NADRA has registered 93% of adult population of Pakistan by issuing 86 million CNICs and has an ambitious plan to register the rest in next six months.
Normally, ECP conducts door to door enumeration and registration exercise by hiring more than 200,000 teachers who fill empty forms. The information collected manually usually marred with error mistake translate into updated electoral rolls.
This time with the help of NADRA, the ECP will verify eligible voters information already printed in forms, thus reducing the error margin significantly.
The ECP is going to kick off its door to door verification exercise with effect from August 22.
The official said printing of Draft Electoral Rolls of 130 districts was possible only after extensive analysis of Final Electoral Rolls (FER) of 2008 and after application of 139,861 census block codes as an aftermath of door to door housing census conducted by Pakistan Census Organization.
The analysis revealed 44 million verified voter with CNICs out of 81 million voters registered in FER-2008. Around 37 million were unverified voter without identity cards. However, 36 million new voters with valid CNICs were added in the draft electoral rolls.
The official said this augmentation done under the business rules approved by ECP consists of eligible voters who got the ID cards since inception of NADRA till the preparation of draft ERs in 2011, enabling them to exercise the right to vote.
The draft electoral rolls now consist of 80.6 million eligible voters with valid CNICs.
The official urged citizens to register for vote and verify if they already registered by helping ECP staff knocking their door from August 22.
He said this is truly and equal opportunity for all citizens including women, eunuchs, minorities, poor, rich, young and senior citizens.
NADRA’s 800 data acquisition units including 220 mobile registration vans and offices countrywide have been directed to work with district election staff to help citizens without CNICs, so that they can apply during door to door verification exercise.  So, this is the time to act and get a CNIC to vote.