NADRA fails to verify 74% of audited votes in Asif's constituency

The top citizen database says thumbprints of poor quality but CNICs are valid

ISLAMABAD: The top citizen database has failed to identify 14,048 voters through their fingerprints in the constituency of Defence Minister Khawaja Asif. A total of 19,028 votes were sent for verification to the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA).

The authority informed the top court on Friday that these voters in NA-110 Sialkot could not be verified through its Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) because of poor quality of fingerprints.



While the thumb impressions were of poor quality, the national identity card (CNIC) numbers mentioned on these voting papers were valid, NADRA stated in a report on 26 polling stations of NA-110 submitted to the Supreme Court.

Asif had won the 2013 general elections from this constituency but the runner-up, PTI’s candidate Usman Dar, had challenged the PML-N leader’s victory. The election tribunal also declared Asif the winner later. However, the PTI leader filed an appeal in the apex court dissatisfied with the tribunal’s order.

On July 2, a three-member SC bench headed by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali ordered NADRA to submit the forensic report on the 26 polling stations questioned by the petitioner.

The NADRA report said 4,965 ballots were authenticated by the AFIS, meaning the fingerprints on the counterfoil correctly matched with the fingerprint data of the registered citizens. About 293 votes were authenticated through the Voter Serial Number mentioned on the counterfoils.

Another 502 ballots did not qualify for fingerprints matching due to numerous reasons. There were 298 used counterfoils where the voter identity could not be determined because of invalid CNIC numbers mentioned on the counterfoil.



Another 31 counterfoils did not even have the CNIC number mentioned. Seven votes were cast by people not registered in NA-110. About 46 NIC numbers were mentioned more than once on 23 counterfoils and another 120 were found without fingerprints.

Earlier, NADRA had submitted its report on 198 polling stations, stating that 102,950 voters could not be verified due to poor quality of the fingerprints on their counterfoils.

The NA-110 Sialkot was one of the four constituencies on which the Imran Khan-led PTI had sought an audit and re-election through election petitions. The other constituencies were NA-125 and NA-122 in Lahore and NA-154 in Lodhran.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 20^th, 2016.