Twitterati question ECP's move to change polling stations

Some analysts, social media users claim the development is aimed at pre-poll rigging and manipulation

Social media users on Wednesday complained that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had changed their voter registration data without prior information.

According to many social media users, their polling stations have been moved by the electoral authority to far-off locations from their earlier voting sites.

Some complaints went as far to claim that their votes had been annulled as they were declared 'dead'.

The complaints started to emerge after the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) asked citizens to check their voter registration data with the ECP by texting their CNIC to 8300.

Check your vote registration by sending CNIC at 8300 via sms. If you don't have your vote registered, please download, fill and submit Form 21 (available at https://t.co/vnyfZBQpBm) to ECP with copy of CNIC to District Election Commission office. #Register2Vote pic.twitter.com/Q0yEeqW9Hv

— PTI (@PTIofficial) May 31, 2022

In response, citizens posted screenshots of their locations designated during the 2018 general elections.

One social media user posted that their earlier location, at a distance of just 700 metres, had now been moved to a distance of six kilometres.

Complaints against ECP are valid. My original polling station was some 700m away but shifted to another place which is 6KM away

Numerous people are reporting that stations were shifted to either remote villages or entirely different cities

This is pre-poll rigging in my opinion

— Hassan Khan (@mhassankhan06) June 1, 2022

Another claimed that some voters had been "thrown" hundreds of miles away, far from their previous locations.

ECP has changed polling addresses for most of the voters without a reason. Some voters have been thrown as far as few hundred miles.
We know that the Election Commission is doing this on purpose. This is pre-election rigging.

— AzHaR iQbaL (@MeR503) June 1, 2022

The complaints by the social media users didn't go unnoticed as several journalists, and analysts who questioned the apparent absurdity of the move.

Journalist Amir Zia questioned if the move was aimed at rigging or manipulating the polls.

Pre-poll riging, manipulation?
The Election Commission of Pakistan #ECP has messed up with the voters' list & the voting centers. Countless of voters will have to go to far flung places to exercise voting right rather than vote near their homes as was done in the last polls.

— Amir Zia (@AmirZia1) June 1, 2022

Another journalist, Sumaira Jajja asked when did the change actually take place.

I have ECP messages from Sept and Dec 2021. The polling stations were old ones. When did the change to new polling station happen? Checking up with family and friends, this isn't just limited to Karachi. https://t.co/eNgFSmfz5E

— SJ (@SumairaJajja) June 1, 2022

Former head of the National Counter Terrorism Authority Khawaja Khalid Farooq pointed out that there was something "seriously wrong" with the development.

Something seriously wrong with ECP regarding inconvenient displacement of voting centres . Previously my voting Center was less than a km from my house which has been changed to more than 20 km away . For my family as well . What is this Non- sense . Will ECP explain ?

— Khawaja Khalid Farooq (@Kkf50) May 31, 2022

A social media user also claimed that the change was an attempt to make it difficult for the PTI voters to reach the polling stations on election day.

Why is nobody speaking out against @ECP_Pakistan plan to rig the elections by distributing PTIs vote bank to far flung areas, so as to make it impossible for voters to reach their polling booths on election day. @PTIofficial @ImranRiazKhan @ImranKhanPTI @SdqJaan @OfficialDGISPR

— Rakiah Owais (@Rakwitter) June 1, 2022