Over 50,000 centres: Preliminary electoral rolls to be displayed on February 29

A meeting with the Election Support Group was held here on Friday at the Election Commission Secretariat under the chairmanship of Ishtiaq Ahmad Khan, Secretary ECP, which was attended by the representatives of ESG and senior officers of ECP.
During the meeting, Ishtiaq Khan explained the goals and objectives of ECP's five-year Strategic Plan 2010-14, throwing light on each goal and objective, progress planned and achieved within the period of less than two years. He told the participants that ECP has provided and matched its own data with Nadra to compare it with its civil registry to assure credible and error-free electoral rolls. Moreover, preliminary electoral rolls will be put on more than 50,000 display centres on February 29 till March 20, 2012 to receive all sorts of claims, corrections and objections in this regard. SMS facility, which ECP is introducing for the first time in the democratic histories of the world, is also going to be functional on February 29, 2012 ie, during the display period, he added.
The secretary pointed out that it is also for the first time that the enlistment of names in the electoral rolls would continue till the announcement of election schedule. A wide-ranging electronic media campaign will be launched to educate and create awareness in general public in this regard. He said it is a matter of national pride that they are preparing the electoral rolls-2011 and all the expenses are being born by Government of Pakistan. He furthered that unscrupulous printing of ballot papers is discouraged with the making of specialised ballot papers having secret security features like watermark etc. To avoid impersonation, we are preparing electoral rolls having photographs and thumb impression.
Istiaq said that due to the unavailability of population census report, it is not possible for ECP to deal with the issue of delimitation; however, the commission has directed PECs to complete the process of re-description/de-limitations of Karachi and other provinces. To control election expenses, they are working on it following even the best practices adopted by Indian Election Commission.-PR