ECP to release KP, Balochistan provisional electoral rolls on Dec 23

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday announced to release interim electoral rolls of the Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces from December 23, ARY NEWS reported.

According to the country’s electoral body, the KP electoral lists comprise details of 19 million voters in the province and would be displayed at 6000 centres across the province for the verification purpose.

On the other hand, the Balochistan has a total of 4.6 million voters registered in the initial list and it would be displayed at the 2000 centres, so that those whose names have not appeared in the lists could be added.

The body further said that the arrangements for issuing electoral lists of Punjab and Sindh province are also finalized and would soon be issued.

On November 29, the then Secretary Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) said that over 12 million women voters were not registered in the country.

Babar Yaqoob Fateh Muhammad addressing the electoral reforms conference here said that how an election could become free and fair when such a large number of women would be out of the electoral process.

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“It is the responsibility of political parties to ensure registration of women as voters,” secretary ECP said. He lamented lack of cooperation from the political parties over the issue and requested the parties to extend cooperation with the election commission.

Around 4.3 million women voters were registered before the general election of 2018, he said.

He expressed apprehension that the number of unregistered women voters in the country could further increase.

The ECP was working in collaboration with the National Database Registration Authority (NADRA) for registration of the women voters, he said.