Fresh electoral rolls

In our country among various factors that tend to undermine transparency of elections, the one at the top is always faulty electoral lists. Not too infrequently a voter would register himself at more than one places, vicariously helped by the door-to-door enumerators who are ill-equipped to verify his/her correct credentials.
Consequently, the picture that emerges from this exercise is mostly distorted, subverting the very essence of one-man, one-vote spirit of democracy. It not only clouds the much-needed transparency in the election process and encourages rigging but also provokes violence at the voting booths. In fact, in some cases results are held up till the issue of double-voting is resolved. Rightly then the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) is resisting the move by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to launch door-to-door enumeration of planned electoral rolls. In an interview with the Business Recorder, an official of the Authority said 'there are some hidden forces that are not willing to give room to complete transparency in the election process.' In fact, such 'hidden forces' are not only driven by their electoral ambitions but also want the quantum of quota in the overall nation's financial and administration pie tilted in their favour. In fact, so much of quotas are linked to the population that numerical strength has acquired great importance.
With NADRA having a complete database - it has verified addresses of the card-holders and up-to-date figures on the information of deaths, for which it issues certificates - the door-to-door enumeration of rolls by 'strangers' makes no sense. Then such an exercise is costly, as about quarter of a million enumerators are hired to conduct the enumeration and also time consuming, given the collection of data from far-off, inaccessible places, and some of these are beset with a law and order problem, which is not easy either. On the other hand, consider the ready availability of authentic credentials with the NADRA - you need not be wasting time, money and energy on the outmoded door-to-door enumeration of electoral rolls. No wonder the 2006-07 rolls prepared by the door-to-door enumerators were so inaccurate that a second look by NADRA helped add another 50 percent of voters who were missed out. Make the CNIC mandatory for registration as voters and you need not bother for all the fuss that entails door-to-door enumeration these days, when so many people are out to work during the day and the women at home would be reluctant to talk to the strangers.
The question is why is the present ECP, which lacks credibility with the opposition political parties, bent upon preparing the electoral lists, duplicating a work already done by the NADRA. Is it that it wants to justify its own computerisation electoral rolls machinery at the hefty price of Rs 1.2 billion, whose statistics clash with the NADRA's, adding confusion to the national population picture with all its resultant negative fallout. The ECP must do something else, more important to its credibility as an independent organ of state mandated to hold free, fair and transparent elections. One of the items on the PML-N's agenda handed over to the government is the restructuring of the Commission. The party has expressed lack of faith in the ECP chairman's capacity to deliver and wants him to be replaced by one cleared by a bipartisan parliamentary committee. As to the fixed term of the Chief Election Commissioner the opposition says that the spirit of 18th Amendment makes it conditional and subject to alteration.
If real democracy has not come to Pakistan despite the repeated elections, one almost exclusive cause has been absence of independent election commission rolls and unchecked rigging. Let there be elections every four or five years, as envisaged by the constitution, and let these be fair, free and transparent - that's only way to deepen the roots of democracy in Pakistan. Let the NADRA prepare the lists of voters and the ECP take care of other aspects of the electoral process, particularly the scrutiny of candidates, the conduct of polling and the speedy disposal of the negative aftermath of the elections, like the contestants' complaints and polling afresh, if and when required. The ongoing tussle between the NADRA and ECP is rightly tilted in favour of the former and it would be in the national interest that the issue is resolved without much loss of time.