Get set go: Voter verification begins with army on back-up

KARACHI:

The verification of voters in Karachi is all set to begin today (Thursday). With army on their side, around 11,300 workers will descend on the port city to verify the 6.9 million registered voters over the next 20 days. The election commission has set up around 13,622 census blocks for the door-to-door verification of electoral rolls.

“The process will start across the entire city irrespective whether sensitive areas are located in urban or rural Karachi,” said the newly appointed provincial election commissioner, Mehboob Anwar, at a joint press conference with election commission officials and Rangers on Wednesday. The re-verification of electoral rolls will continue till February 1.

The role of the army has, however, been limited to providing security to the teams only, rather than accompanying them door to door. “The police, Rangers, the Karachi commissioner and all deputy commissioners are with us. The Pakistan Army personnel will also be present,” Anwar said. The provincial election commissioner had, however, no idea about the number of law enforcement personnel to be deputed in Karachi.



“The Inter-Services Public Relations [the media wing of Pakistan Army] will be in a better position to tell about the strength of army and its role,” he said.

The re-verification of eligible voters in Karachi was ordered by the apex court after complaints that more than three million voters registered for years in Karachi had been enrolled in new lists on their permanent addresses outside Karachi without their consent.

The verification will begin with the housing census and the election commission staff will jot down the house numbers while confirming the names of family heads, total number of family members aged 18 or above, their identity cards and addresses.

In Karachi’s five districts, five registration officers have been appointed with 197 assistant registration officers. Another 3,216 supervisors will be appointed. The block-wise lists of verified voters will be sent to the assistant registration officer through their supervisors, who will later dispatch the consolidated statements to the provincial election commission, district election commissioner and the election commission in Islamabad

The identity cards issued until August 1, 2012, have been included and new cards issued until December 1 may also be incorporated. “The votes of people who have died will be deleted by checking their death certificates,” Anwar said.

Display centres will be established at the offices of assistant registration officers,. “People can come, register and verify their votes or submit their objections,” Anwar said.

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