ISLAMABAD - Pakistan’s Election Commission has issued a “final list” of voters, putting the electorate at 80 million, an increase of 28 million from the first draft list published in June, an official said on Friday.| Anyone surprised? Bueller? |
“We have issued the final list of 80 million voters for the next polls,” commission Secretary Kanwar Muhammad Dilshad told Reuters. “This is an ongoing process and voters can still be included until the election schedule is announced.”
The commission had argued that the 72 million-strong electorate in 2002 was inflated, saying the state-run National Database and Registration Authority made an error by registering many people who did not have national identity cards. However, the new list builds on the original 2002 voter base and adds millions of people who have since turned 18, Dilshad said. Roughly half of PakistanÂ’s 160 million people are below 18.
The last elections in 2002, which brought MusharrafÂ’s allies to power, were widely believed to have been rigged.
However, some independent poll observers still had reservations about the new list, saying the process had not been transparent. “We have doubts about the new list. It is not the question of the number but how reliable these lists are,” said Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, head of non-government advocacy group PILDAT. “There are still millions of people who have been issued new national identity cards but their names are not on the list.”