General elections: NADRA report reveals irregularities in PP-147

Report classifies 1,590 ballots as ‘bad quality’ votes.

LAHORE:

A National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) examination has revealed irregularities and at least one bogus vote in PP-147 during the May 2013 general elections.

According to the report, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune, the National Database and Registration Authority  examined the election material including the statement of count, used counterfoils and photo election rolls at six polling stations of PP-147 (Lahore-XI).

The report said that 3,768 votes were polled at the six polling stations. It said 3,049 votes (80.91%) – 1,459 authenticated and 1,590 bad quality votes – were cast against valid national identity card (CNIC) numbers.

Another 696 votes (18.4%) could not be processed due to invalid CNIC numbers on counterfoils or missing numbers.

The report said that the ink used for the polling was of poor quality. This had resulted in a large number of bad quality ballots (1,590) that could not be processed through Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) used by the National Database and Registration Authority, the report said.

Two votes were cast by a single person. Fifteen counterfoils had no fingerprints on them, according to the report.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 27^th, 2014.