Insecurity in Balochistan: Voter verification held up in four districts
Public servants engaged in the verification drive of electoral lists in four districts of Balochistan have been facing security problems from the very first day, sources within the Election Commission told The Express Tribune.
“While preparing the lists, staff members, particularly those in Baloch-dominated areas, tend to feel insecure as a result of growing incidents of targeted killings, explosions and hand grenade attacks,” an official said, requesting that his identity be kept undisclosed.
The exercise, intended to compile error-free electoral rolls, is still pending in Mastung, Awaran, Washuk and Panjgur districts because of the deteriorating law and order situation in the province.
The Election Commission launched a door-to-door verification campaign in light of the Supreme Court’s order. The campaign was supposed to be concluded by September 30.
The Election Commission, however, allowed a 15-day extension for the process to be completed in the four districts named above where law and order poses a major challenge for law enforcers. The process is almost complete in the other 26 districts of Balochistan.
Provincial Election Commissioner Mehboob Anwar said they were facing some problems other than the law and order situation which was causing a delay in the verification process. “The process is 100 per cent complete in 26 districts, although, it will take about two weeks to complete the process in Panjgur, Awaran, Washuk and Mastung,” Anwar said.
The names of about 1.2 million people have been removed from the voters’ list by the Balochistan Election Commission because they were not verified by the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA). As a result, the number of registered voters in Balochistan declined from 4,362,272 to 3,004,000.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 12th, 2011.
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Door to door verification campaign and compilation of error free electoral roles are step in the right direction. Justifiably, the officials are facing security problems but where are the political elements who are supposed to help these officials to perform their task optimally? It is sad that we are not providing (actually denying) opportunity to voters to get their votes/names registered depriving them of their fundamental rights to vote. It indicates that we are afraid that they would vote against us. Greater responsibility lies on the people so called representatives of those districts who want that they should keep on living in the cave.