Election Commission postpones registration of new voters

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (EC) has postponed a door-to-door campaign for the registration of new voters, Express 24/7 reported on Tuesday.

The campaign has been postponed due to a delay in the printing of electoral rolls. Chairman National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) Ali Arshad Hakeem had requested that the schedule be reconsidered due to problems being faced in the printing of lists containing 80 million voters.

Following the request, the election commission decided to start the campaign from next month.

Sources said the commission has decided to avail the services of 175,000 teachers for the campaign.

An EC official had earlier said 0.1 million people will be participating in the campaign. He said that 36 million new voters are expected to register through the campaign.

Earlier this month, the EC had informed the Supreme Court that 35 million unverified voters have been removed from the National Database and Registration Authority’s (NADRA) record while around 36 million new voters have been added to the database.

This information was disclosed when a three-member bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry resumed the hearing of a petition, filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan, who raised questions on the authenticity of voters who participated in the 2008 general elections.