Voters day: People urged to register for voting

Walk held to raise awareness about voting

ABBOTABAD: Residents of Abbottabad, particularly youngsters, were encouraged to register themselves for voting and exercise their right to franchise.

To create and develop awareness among voters, the regional election commission and education department jointly organized a session and walk at a local school.

Speaking on this occasion, Regional Election Commissioner Abdul Hafeez lamented that while vote casting percentages in developed countries stood at 90 per cent, it lagged in Pakistan at 40 to 50 per cent.

However, to encourage more people to vote, he said the Election Commission of Pakistan had embarked on a comprehensive plan. As part of this plan, the electoral body had launched a voter registration drive a month ago and created district level voter education committees to raise awareness through public participation.

Referring to the May 2013 elections, Hafeez said that due to voter education campaigns, they had witnessed an increase of 10 to 15. The voting percentage increased to 55 per cent in 2013, up from 40 per cent in 2008. He hoped that the ongoing campaign would help the ECP in achieving the target of further increase during the next election.

He urged youngsters, who have turned 18, to register themselves as voters without further delay.

On this occasion the children of different schools presented tableau on the importance of vote and later the participants staged a walk upto Fawara Chowk carrying banners and placards.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 8^th, 2016.