Verification of voter lists

Let us hope no stone is left unturned to ensure every household is checked and every voter is re-verified.

After numerous delays and fears about whether it could be pushed forward, the much-needed voter verification process began in Karachi on January 10, hopefully, laying to rest conspiracy theories — of which there are no shortages — that elections may be postponed. Such a scenario would be unfortunate for the democratic process, which is still in its nascent years in Pakistan. This is why it is important that the democratic process is not derailed. All stakeholders supporting efforts to ensure elections are held on time in a transparent manner must be lauded for doing their job and, by the same token, those creating hurdles should be taken to task by relevant authorities.

Earlier delays in the Supreme Court mandated voter verification process have included, for example, the necessary forms required for this process being held up at Islamabad and only being delivered in Karachi on January 8. Election commission officials are confident that the process will be completed in Karachi in three weeks’ time; this is no mean feat for a city of 6.8 million registered voters. Let us hope that no stone is left unturned to ensure that every household is checked and that every voter’s verification is duly carried out. The impartiality with which this exercise needs to be carried out cannot be stressed enough.



It is unfortunate that this process requires the involvement of the military, ostensibly under the guise that it is there to ensure the safety of the election officials supervising the voter verification process. One cannot help but note the irony given the history of the military when it comes to the democratic process in Pakistan, namely that the military has been known to create roadblocks and hurdles. However, for a large part of the population, the military is still seen as trustworthy so its presence in the voter verification process may end up giving the exercise the impartiality it needs at this stage — though one hopes that, with time, the election commission will be able to execute the electoral process in a transparent manner without help from other state institutions.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 11^th, 2013.