Islamabad, March 08; The Citizens� Group on Electoral Process-CGEP, a non-partisan Group of eminent Pakistanis facilitated by PILDAT has demanded that the present Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of Pakistan should conduct an enquiry into the making of Computerised Electoral Rolls 2007 for the purpose of fixing responsibility and learning lessons for the future. The CGEP believes that the process of preparing the computerised Electoral Rolls in 2006 was apparently faulty in its design and execution despite the fact that more than Rs. 1 billion were spent on the project. Wide-spread lack of trust was expressed about the draft computerised Electoral Rolls and eventually the Supreme Court had to intervene and suggest remedial measures as the General Election 2008 was imminent.

The CGEP, which has issued a detailed Background Paper on the State of Electoral Process in Pakistan, is of the view that the then Chief Election Commissioner and other responsible officials apparently did not make any meaningful effort to use the NADRA database in the interest of accuracy, integrity and economy of Electoral Rolls preparation, and huge public funds and international financial assistance were apparently mis-spent on the preparation of faulty and incomplete Electoral Rolls. It is incumbent upon the present CEC, therefore, to print a report on the entire process of preparation of Computerised Electoral Rolls and details of the money spent on the preparation and finalisation of Electoral Rolls for public knowledge.

The CGEP has proposed that the Election Commission, in conjunction with the NADRA, moves in a determined manner to introduce one-window operation for the issuance of new CNICs and registration of voters. The CGEP has expressed satisfaction at the emerging cooperation, albeit belated, between the ECP and the NADRA in producing a credible Voters List. While the next General Election is due by 2013, the Local Government Election is expected to be held during 2010 and it is necessary that the Electoral Rolls in Pakistan are error-free ahead of the elections, believes CGEP. The NADRA believes once it receives data of earlier Rolls from the ECP, it will require up to 8 months to make those Rolls error-free. This necessitates urgent action. �A full programme with timeline for producing the Electoral Rolls should be announced by the ECP as well as adhered to, while the citizens, citizens� bodies and the media observe the process and extend suggestions and cooperation,� suggests CGEP. The ECP, the Government and the Parliament should move quickly to amend the rules and laws, where needed, to create a modern and credible voter registry, said the CGEP.

The Citizens Group on Electoral Process, which was formed by PILDAT in 2006, monitored the process leading up to General Election 2008 and is now working to promote Electoral Reforms and development of accurate, complete and up-to-date Electoral Rolls in Pakistan. The CGEP, through an earlier Position Paper on Electoral Rolls as early as June 2007, had highlighted to the ECP the need to use the NADRA database for an accurate Electoral Roll.

In a review of the State of Electoral Rolls in Pakistan in March 2010, the CGEP believes that after the General Election of 2002, the ECP had almost an ideal opportunity to prepare accurate, complete, up-to-date and credible Electoral Rolls. A large and fairly accurate database of adult population was available with the NADRA to build the Electoral Rolls on; financial resources both from the domestic and international sources were available because of a relative better economic climate at home and increased focus on development of democracy by many foreign countries and international agencies and state of technology was such that preparing good Electoral Rolls was relatively easier. The ECP took a delayed action by initiating the fresh Electoral Rolls in 2005 and by 2007 it became clear that the effort, unfortunately, ended in a failure. The NADRA database was not used; the architecture of the Electoral Rolls did not provide for voter�s picture and despite having employed computer-technology the end-product contained multiple entries. The resulting Electoral Rolls became equally, if not more, controversial as any in the past.

Now that the Election Commission has a new Chief Election Commissioner and Secretary of the Election Commission, who appear willing and committed to break clean with the past and create reliable Electoral Rolls, it is important that political parties, media, civil society organizations and citizens play an active and effective role to persuade the ECP and work with it to prepare accurate, complete and credible Electoral Rolls with voters� pictures, the CGEP holds.

The CGEP Background Paper on the State of Electoral Rolls can be accessed here.

The CGEP Background Paper has been prepared by PILDAT under a project titled Electoral and Parliamentary Process and Civil Society in Pakistan that is executed in partnership with the East-West Centre, Hawaii and supported by the United Nations Democracy Fund.