Around 7m may be struck off electoral rolls

New election law says a person can be a registered voter in the constituency of temporary or permanent residence

ISLAMABAD: Millions of names would be struck off the electoral rolls after the 2018 elections if their addresses mentioned in the computerised national identity cards (CNICs) do not match the constituencies.

The newly-passed Election Act 2017 stipulates that voters would be registered only at one of the two addresses -- permanent or temporary -- mentioned in their CNICs issued by the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA).

This law could affect hundreds of thousands of people, who are registered in the electoral rolls at an address other than these two addresses.

Updated till this month, the current electoral rolls have 97.02 million voters -- 54.6 million male and 42.42 million female. The voter lists are likely to top the 100 million mark next year.



Around 7% voters in these lists are registered at a third address, officials at the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) told The Express Tribune. This means there are around 6.8 million such voters in the country -- most of them living in the urban areas.

The new election laws say NADRA will transmit data of every new CNIC to the ECP for registration of the cardholder in the electoral roll of the area mentioned in the permanent address column. NADRA will also transmit to the ECP the relevant data of every cancelled or modified CNIC, and the information regarding deceased voters.

Voter’s eligibility

The Election Act 2017 says that a person shall be entitled to be enrolled as a voter in an electoral area if he is a citizen of Pakistan; is not less than 18 years of age; possesses a national identity card; is not declared by a competent court to be of unsound mind; and is or is deemed under section 27 to be resident in the electoral area.



It further says that a person shall be deemed to be resident in an electoral area if his temporary or permanent address in the national identity card lies there – meaning that the voter can get himself registered either at the permanent or the temporary address mentioned in the CNIC. However, government servants would be given a relaxation. They and their families would have the option to get registered at the temporary residences where they are posted.

To make sure the law does not impact the next general elections, a cut-off date of December 31, 2018 has been kept in the law. A gazette notification on October 2 stated that this sub-section of the Election Act would stand omitted on December 31, 2018.

Under the new laws the CNICs whose expiry date has passed would be valid for the registration as voter or for casting vote in the election.