Deadline for Pakistan commission to enlist voters

ISLAMABAD, Aug 10 (Reuters) Pakistan's Supreme Court gave 30 days to the election commission today to register all eligible voters for the next election after complaints that millions of citizens were missing from draft electoral lists.

The new deadline came a day after Pakistani media reported President Pervez Musharraf would impose a state of emergency that could have delayed the elections for a year. The government later said US ally Musharraf rejected the calls to declare emergency powers and wants Pakistan's elections to go ahead.

Musharraf, who seized power in a military coup eight years ago, is under mounting pressure to ensure free and fair polls, but controversy has already emerged over the draft voters' list unveiled in June.

Controversy over these electoral rolls surfaced after officials released a provisional list of around 52 million eligible voters, 20 million fewer than for polls five years ago. The number has since increased to 55 million.

Exiled former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto then filed a complaint over what she said was the exclusion of millions of people from the draft rolls. She said polls, due later this year or early next year, held with the lists would be unacceptable.

The two-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, directed today the Pakistan Election Commission to register voters left out of the provisional lists within 30 days.

The Supreme Court has been at the centre of the international spotlight after Musharraf suspended Chaudhry in March.

The move sparked a national campaign by lawyers and opposition groups who said Musharraf was trying to weaken any judicial obstacles to his re-election. The court reinstated Chaudhry in July, in a blow for the president.

The last elections, held in 2002 and which brought Musharraf's allies to power, were widely believed to be rigged.

Yesterday, US President George W. Bush also urged Musharraf to hold fair and free elections.

The Brussels-based think-tank, International Crisis Group (ICG), in a report on Pakistan's political situation in July, warned that any attempt to rig elections could lead to a violent confrontation between the government and its opponents.

Independent poll observers say the numbers on the electoral rolls this year should have been even higher than the 72 million voters registered for 2002 polls, as millions had since crossed the 18-year age minimum for voting eligibility.

The commission has said the state-run National Database and Registration Authority erred in preparing electoral lists for 2002 by registering many people who did not have national identity cards.

However, following suggestions by the observers, the commission has recommended to the government to amend the electoral laws to allow any other proof of identity, in addition to the national identity cards, for polling votes.

REUTERS RSA SSC1458