The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has decided to introduce water marked ballot papers in an effort to stop fraudulent votes. Secretary Election Commission Ishtiaq Ahmed Khan has said that NADRA had provided new voter’s list consisting almost 80 million entries to the Election Commission, and process of their home to home verification would be commenced from 22nd August, which would be completed till 30 September.
He was addressing a media briefing here on Saturday. He said that it is a historical development which would ensure holding of free, fair and impartial elections in the country. He said that after completing the verification these lists would be returned to NADRA that would publish final lists in March next year.
He said that every Pakistani citizen would have the right to object any discrepancy found in this voter’s list. He said that computerized voter’s list would be issued without photo however the list issued to the Presiding Officers would be also affixed with the photograph of the voters.
“To prevent the chances of rigging in the elections, next time ballot paper with watermark would be issued. Election Commission has sent a proposal to Parliamentary Committee in which it is proposed that the result of such women polling station may not be counted where the votes would be less than 10 percent”, he added.
He said that the election reforms would bring good governance and collective betterment in the system. On the occasion Deputy Chairman NADRA Tariq Malik told the media that almost 150 million of the voters had not any identification in old voter’s list. He said that 1.2 million voters had fake identity cards whereas 2.5 million had duplicate cards.
Source: ONLINE – International News Network.
