Election lists: ‘Number of voters has decreased in Bahawalpur list’

‘Political parties should raise issue,’ says restoration advocate.

BAHAWALPUR:

The number of voters in the new voter lists has decreased by 521,488, Restoration of Bahawalpur Movement representative Syed Tabish Ali said.

“The reduction in the number of voters does not make sense,” Ali told a delegation of traders he met on Wednesday.

He said the new voter lists were based on NADRA data of computerised identity cards. He said the constitution did not allow depriving eligible voters of their right.

He said identity cards should be issued on emergency basis or votes registered by enumerators going door to door. He said while there may have been some bogus votes on the old lists, there must also be people who were unable to obtain new ID cards but were eligible voters.

He said the number of voters in Bahawalpur District in 2007 was 1,664,216. In the lists it was 1,491,989; the number in Bahawalnagar District was down from 1,273,768 to 1,232,366 and the number in Rahim Yar Khan from 2,149,303 to 1,841,444.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 10^th, 2013.