NADRA report: ‘Most of PP-147 votes cannot be verified’

CNIC numbers on counterfoils reported valid

LAHORE: The National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) reported on Monday that it could not verify 40,155 out of a total of 74,251 votes cast in PP-147 constituency in the 2013 general elections.

The report was submitted by the authority to an election tribunal holding an inquiry into alleged rigging in the NA-122 constituency.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate Mohsan Latif had won the election by polling 36,781 votes from PP-147. He had defeated Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) Shoaib Siddiqui, who got 30,174 votes.

The report submitted on Monday said that there were 40,155 used counterfoils which the authority could not process through its Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) because of poor quality of fingerprints affixed on them.

However, the report said that the CNIC numbers on the counterfoils were valid.

“Around 24,139 votes were authenticated by the AFIS, meaning that the fingerprints affixed on the counterfoils at the time of issuance of ballot papers correctly matched with the fingerprint data of the registered voter held with NADRA in the Citizens’ Database,” the report said.

A total of 46 votes were found unauthenticated, meaning someone else voted against the CNIC number mentioned on the counterfoil.

The report stated that 134 CNIC numbers mentioned on the used counterfoils were not registered in PP-147.

“There were 1,084 used counterfoils having invalid CNIC numbers (never issued by NADRA) written on them. Another 737 used counterfoils could not be checked through CNIC database due to a mistake in writing down the CNIC numbers (missing digit in CNIC or extra digits). As many as 1,862 used counterfoils were found to have CNIC numbers that were illegible due to bad hand writing, torn edges etc,” the report said.

Earlier, NADRA Director General Muzafar Hussain Shah said that the Election Commission had sent them five samples of ink. “We had refused four of them. The one we approved was not used,” he had said. The PTI counsel had then sought to question NADRA chairman Usman Mubeen.

PML-N’s counsel Barrister Asjad Saeed told The Express Tribune that the election of a returning candidate could not be declared void due to the negligence of the polling staff.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 26^th, 2015.