Pakistan's opposition questions electoral roll drop

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

ISLAMABAD, June 15 (Reuters) Pakistan's opposition questioned the fairness of a forthcoming general election today after a senior official said there would be 12 million fewer eligible voters than there were for polls five years ago.

Pakistan is due to hold elections around the turn of the year, and President Pervez Musharraf is under international pressure to make sure they are free and fair after widespread allegations of rigging in 2002.

''Our estimates are that the total number of voters will be around 60 million by the time the list is finalised,'' Kanwar Muhammad Dilshad, secretary of the Election Commission, told Reuters.

Almost 72 million were registered to vote in 2002.

The opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto said the drop had raised serious doubts about the fairness of the list being drawn up.

''We have serious misgivings about the authenticity of the provisional list as, given the 2.28 (percent) annual population growth rate, the number of voters should have been around 85 million,'' PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar said.

According to the official Population Census Organisation Web site, Pakistan's estimated population stood at 160 million on June 15, 28 million more than when the last census was conducted in 1998.

The political climate is already tense as Musharraf's attempt to oust the country's top judge has resulted in the most serious challenge to his authority since he came to power in a coup eight years ago.

A provisional list issued this week put the registered number of voters at around 52.10 million, but that will rise as the official National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) has been issuing up to 40,000 national identity cards a day.

Printing of final electoral rolls will start on July 26.

Dilshad said the 2002 electoral list was inflated, as Nadra erred registering people who did not have national identity cards. The voting age was reduced to 18 years in 2002.

''For the next polls, the commission followed the proper legal provision of house-to-house enumeration and enlisted only those who had national identity cards,'' he said.

Out of the nearly 72 million registered in 2002, only 30 million cast their ballot, a turnout of less than 42 per cent.

REUTERS SLD ND1738

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