NADRA to brief political parties on technical support to ECP

Process to finalise electoral rolls for 2023 polls is currently underway

ISLAMABAD:

In an unusual move, National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) Chairman Tariq Malik has invited representatives of 150 political parties to the authority’s headquarters for an interactive session to walk them through the process of its ongoing technical support to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in preparation of final electoral rolls for next general elections.

Well-placed sources privy to the development said that the NADRA chief ran this idea by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, who supported this initiative. ECP will send its representative to these sessions as well.

The chairman has written a letter to heads of all political parties to nominate the representatives for putting forward the queries and concerns in an interactive session.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Malik said, “Citizens’ engagement is key for successful digital public goods and is the cornerstone of NADRA’s reforms; it is a sin not to engage political parties who represent voters while providing technical support to ECP”.

“To achieve a greater level of transparency, NADRA intends to open its doors to all political parties. A full-day dedicated session is planned for each political party interested in participating. During these sessions, NADRA will also respond to specific queries and concerns if raised by political stakeholders,” identical letters written to political parties read.

While highlighting the importance of the electoral process, NADRA thus invited political parties to an “Open House Session on Electoral Rolls" to elaborate its role in the process.

The parties have been asked to convey their convenient date and lists of participants, enabling them to make requisite arrangements to conduct interactive sessions after Eidul Azha.

The letter stated that NADRA has been assisting the ECP since 2011 in the preparation of computerised electoral rolls as per their request. It added that the main concept behind the collaboration between ECP and NADRA was to ensure the preparation of electoral rolls on the basis of "One Identity, One Person - One Vote" with minimal inclusion and exclusion errors.

So far, multiple general elections, local bodies elections, and by-elections had been conducted on these electoral rolls. The current local body polls and by-polls are being conducted on electoral rolls prepared in 2017, however, the final electoral rolls to be used in 2023 general elections are underway, it further stated.

“NADRA's role in this collaboration is limited to providing technical and operational support on the request of ECP which is solely mandated under Article 219 of the constitution for preparation of electoral rolls and registration of voters,” the letter read.

It stated that technical and operational support to ECP by NADRA includes the provision of newly-issued CNICs data to ECP and supply of data of deceased as per Civil Registration Management System (CRMS) to the electoral body for their independent verification and subsequent inclusion and exclusion of voter.

It also provides address change data, and implements business rules as approved by ECP, besides printing and transporting electoral rolls to district election commissioners’ offices and hosting of SMS 8300 service.

“At this stage, ECP and NADRA are engaged in the preparation of electoral rolls to be used in upcoming general elections. ECP has conducted door-to-door verification of existing electoral rolls as part of periodic revision exercise and Preliminary Electoral Rolls (PER) are placed at display centres for public scrutiny,” the letter stated.

“Voters and political stakeholders can file claims and objections on PER to be decided by revising authorities through a judicious process. The decisions of revising authorities will be incorporated and ECP will publish Final Electoral Rolls (FER) within stipulated timelines. The updating of Electoral Rolls will continue even after publication of FER under provisions of Section 37 of the Elections Act, 2017,” it added.