General elections: Polls in AJK to be held before Ramazan: CEC

Chief election commissioner says voter lists purged of 391,939 bogus votes

MUZAFFARABAD:

Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) election commission on Monday announced to hold general elections in the state before Ramazan, which begins in early June, this year.

AJK Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Justice Ghulam Mustafa Mughal was addressing a press conference here on Monday.

“All available resources would be utilised to conduct the general elections before June 8,” he said.

The chief election commissioner said that voter lists had been purged of 391,939 bogus votes, which he said were registered during the last general elections, in 2011.

He said rejection of a large number of votes was a major achievement of the election commission.

A total of 1,978,639 votes are registered in 10 districts. 12 seats of Kashmiri refugees in different parts of Pakistan are in addition to voters listed in AJK.

The CEC said that the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) would verify the voter lists within 20 days, after which the ballot printing would start.

The CEC hailed the role of all three divisional commissioners, 10 deputy commissioners, and employees of revenue and education departments for compiling the new voter lists within 25 days.

He said for the first time in AJK, votes had been registered on the permanent addresses mentioned in CNICs of voters. Mughal said this would ensure free, fair and transparent elections.

The chief election commissioner said police, Rangers and army personnel would be deployed at all polling stations and added that army troops would be deployed inside the polling stations.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 29^th, 2016.