Verification of electoral rolls kicks off in Rawalpindi

The process of verification of electoral rolls with door-to-door voter proof kicked off in Rawalpindi ahead of general and local government elections.

The verification drive will continue until the first week of December. More than 18,000 officials are taking part in the verification drive.

Rawalpindi District Election Commissioner Shaheen Ghazal has urged the citizens to co-operate with the election commission and take part in the verification process.

She said that the citizens should include their votes, if it is not on the list, or if they want to get their votes transferred. She said the verified lists will help in the accomplishment of national duty transparently.

The district election commission also held a meeting with stakeholders, non-governmental organisations and the media. The commission also took recommendations from the stakeholders.

The district election commissioners, including Shaheen Ghazal, Rai Sultan Bhatti and election officers, including Mazhar Jamil, Mehwish Bukhar and Madia Mumtaz, said that teams of the election commission, education and other departments will go door-to-door to verify the votes.

The teams will hand over form-13 to a voter if the vote is not registered or its transfer is sought, they said adding that the citizen will have to return the form to the teams after filling it while the civil servants will use form-14.

According to the election commission officials, 52 assistant registration officers, 585 supervisors and 1,882 verification officers have been appointed for the door-to-door verification.

They said the total population of Rawalpindi stands at 5.4 million with 3.4 million registered voters.

The election commission officials urged the citizens to cooperate with the teams and make democracy strong. They said that the city police officer and the deputy commissioner were coordinating with them and security had been ensured.

The officials said that the enumerators will be given a stipend and compensation for travel and mobile phone expenses.

On the occasion, representatives of transgender persons demanded the registration of their votes and the problems they face during the polling process.

School teachers also pointed out the time constraint they face during the verification process.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 13^th, 2021.