Draft Electoral Roll 2007

The Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN), a coalition of thirty leading Pakistani civil society organizations, was established in 2006 to observe the election process, educate voters, and advocate for electoral and democratic reform. From June 13 to July 18, 2007, FAFEN conducted a statistically valid audit of the 2007 draft electoral roll and found that this list, although incomplete, is generally accurate – that is, the names it does contain are listed correctly.

FAFEN conducted a List-to-People and People-to-List audit in electoral areas covered by 506 randomly selected Display Centres throughout the country – a methodology that has been tried and tested in many countries of the world. These Display Centres were selected in 500 randomly chosen union councils according to proportion of population of each province.

In addition, FAFEN observed the quality of processes implemented by Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Display Centre Information Officers (DCIOs) in order to analyze their fairness, neutrality, and transparency, based on the ECP’s Manual of Instruction. This observation was conducted at about 21,000 Display Centres. Additionally, more than 3,000 DCIOs and 25,400 people visiting the Display Centres were interviewed to gauge their perceptions about the processes inside the centres. FAFEN also studied the activities of political parties and civil society organizations during the Display Period to analyze their level of interest in the process at more than 5,500 locations of the four provinces.

A total of 754 FAFEN static and mobile observers, duly trained for their multi-faceted tasks, were employed to carry out this research. The key findings of FAFEN’s audit and observation during the Display Period for the 2007 draft electoral roll are as follows:

Accuracy and Completeness of the 2007 Draft Electoral Roll

A Quarter of Households are Not Registered: Almost 27 percent of households in the electoral areas covered were found to be not registered in the draft electoral roll. The highest number of unregistered households was found in NWFP at 45.53 percent. This was followed by Balochistan, with 41.22 percent; Islamabad at 37.5 percent; Punjab with 23.36 percent, and Sindh at 16.73 percent. The data extrapolation leads to an alarmingly high number of unregistered households in the country – around 5.3 million, basing on the national figure of a total of 19,849,770 households given by the ECP.

More Women than Men are Unregistered: The number of women not registered on the draft electoral rolls is much higher than the number of unregistered men throughout the country. However, there remain a high number of people who have not been registered on the electoral rolls, irrespective of their sex. The highest number of unregistered women was found in NWFP, at almost 50%. This percentage was followed by Sindh, Punjab, and Islamabad. These women might not have been registered due to social obstacles to women’s political participation and the fact that many women lack CNICs.

Registered Household have Unregistered Members: Unregistered people, both males and females, are scattered all over the country and are part of households that have some members registered on the electoral roll. The finding was established by both List-to-People and People-to-List audits. Out of a total of 7,094 house- holds checked during the List-to-People audit, only 3,875 (54.62 percent) of households were found to have the exact number of males as were on the list, while 2,847 (40.13 percent) of households had the exact number of females as were on the list.

The 2007 Electoral Roll is Largely Free of Entry-Level Errors:The two audits took into account the issue of the accuracy of the 2007 draft electoral roll with regard to the entries of names, addresses, and CNIC numbers of voters. The audit establishes that this new roll is largely free of the entry-level errors. More than 97 percent of respondents whose details were cross-checked were found to be accurate. The List-to-People and the People-to-List audit generated similar data regarding the accuracy of the electoral roll.

Procedural Weaknesses During the Display Period

DCIOs were Inadequately Prepared: Among more than 3,000 DCIOs interviewed by FAFEN observers, about 29.8 percent reported that they received no training at all, and an additional 7.2 percent (for a total of 36 percent) said they were “not satisfied” with the training they received.

As many as 88 percent of DCIOs mistakenly believed that it was “necessary” for citizens to bring their CNIC/NIC cards to the Display Canter in order to register to vote. Many eligible voters who could not provide their NIC/CNIC card were turned away from Display Centres by the DCIOs. In addition, 86.5 percent of DCIOs believed wrongly that a judicial Revising Authority (RA) would “hold a hearing for every person who files a form to add their name to the electoral roll”. Citizens were informed by DCIOs that they must attend a hearing in another location at a later date, an additional step that deterred many people from completing the voter registration process.

Only 0.4 percent of DCIOs were female and there were no separate areas at any of the Display Centres for female eligible voters to receive assistance in order to fill out the necessary ECP form to add their names to the electoral roll.

Procedural Inadequacies Hampered Display Process: Out of almost 21,000 Display Centres observed, 442 Centres (2.10 percent) were not at neutral places, but in locations whose owners had an affiliation with a political party or group.

Moreover, 1,240 Display Centres were not visible and accessible to public. As many as 4,755 Display Centres (22.65 percent) were not clearly marked outside by an ECP banner or other indication showing the direction or place of the Display Centre. More than 15,200 Display Centre (72.42 percent) banners were not inscribed with the daily working hours of the Display Period, as required by the ECP rules. A majority of the Display Centre banners did not mention the names of electoral areas they covered, which was essential for people to know if they were going to the right place for checking their names on the list.

The ECP voter instruction posters were not found affixed in 7,368 Display Centres (35.1 percent) observed, and at 3,650 Display Centres (17.39 percent) the DCIOs were absent. Almost 5,200 Display Centres observed (24.76 percent) were set-up on or after the Display Period had begun, and most Display Centres only worked an average of three to four hours a day. At 2,497 Display Centres (11.89 percent), DCIOs said they did not receive any Manual of Instruction, and 2,950 Display Centres (14.05 percent) faced a shortage of ECP Forms IV, V and VI during the Display Period. The required three Log Books to record details of each form filled were missing at 2,793 Display Centres (13.30 percent). About 10,420 Display Centres (49.64 percent) lacked any security arrangements.

Low Participation During the Display Period

Few Voters Verified Their Registration: An average of 4.33 voters per day filled out Form IV for inclusion of their name on the new, computerized, draft electoral roll in each Display Centre. Drawing from this data, a total of only about 3.54 million new voters could have been added to the voters’ list from all 45,000 Centres. Less than 10 percent of people who visited the Display Centres were women.

Political Parties were not Active Enough: Some political parties were active during the Display Period, assisting voters to go to Display Centres and fill out forms, for example. However, most parties did not participate extensively in either mobilizing voters to visit the Centres during the Display Period or facilitating them in checking whether their names were on the list. Out of 5,558 locations in the country, observers reported 985 locations where one or more political parties were working with voters. PPP and PML-Q appeared most active in facilitating voters.

Civil Society was Active, but had Limited Outreach: Civil society organizations were active in almost a similar number of locations as the political parties. These organizations mobilized people through corner meetings, door-to-door campaigns, and information materials about the importance of Display Period. Most of these organizations also provided facilitation to people at the Display Centres, assisted people in filling out forms, guided them to the right Display Centres and helped mediate disputes between DCIOs and people at the Display Centres.

Supreme Court Case and ECP Plan for Augmenting the 2007 Electoral Roll

Based on its technical audit of the 2007 draft electoral roll, the election laws of Pakistan, and analysis of ongoing electoral preparations, FAFEN expresses concern about the ECP’s plan for implementation of instructions by the Supreme Court of Pakistan on August 16, 2007, regarding the new voters’ list of 2007. The Court has given the ECP only 30 days to address concerns raised in a petition filed by Pakistan Peoples Party’s Chairperson Benazir Bhutto. FAFEN notes that the ECP plan, explained in a press release on August 17, will increase the number of voters registered to vote, but may erode the quality of Pakistan’s new electoral roll, for which almost a billion rupees have already been spent.

Under the proposed plan, the ECP will reconcile the new 2007 draft voters’ list with the old 2002 list. However, FAFEN is concerned about the authenticity of the 2002 electoral roll and believes that the ECP’s planned procedures to reconcile it with the 2007 list may undermine the 2007 lists’ integrity.

Recommendations

FAFEN, which was a party to the Supreme Court case and filed a legal brief to the Court, fully supports the objective of enrolling all eligible voters and, based on the findings of its audit of the 2007 draft electoral roll, recommends:

1. 1. The ECP should ensure that the accuracy of the 2007 voters’ list is maintained. Additional names on the 2002 list should only be added to the 2007 list if they can be verified.
2. Special attention should be given to increasing the registration of eligible women voters nationwide.
3. NADRA should produce and distribute as many CNICs as possible between now and the election day free of charge, and all of those individuals should be automatically enrolled or at least asked if they want to be added to the electoral roll.
4. NADRA should cooperate with ECP and neutral volunteers to distribute the CNICs in a timely manner so that registered voters can vote on election day.

In addition, FAFEN believes that ECP and NADRA should reconcile their databases so that all individuals currently holding CNICs in areas where elections will be held (not Kashmir and Northern Areas) are automatically added to the 2007 electoral roll.

The Chief Election Commissioner in 2006 ordered the preparation of “authentic and error-free” electoral rolls, using the power vested in him by Article 19 of the Electoral Rolls Act 1974 because he determined, according to the law, that there was “gross error or irregularity” in the previous voters’ list. FAFEN’s audit of the new electoral roll demonstrates that the resulting new electoral roll is accurate, and FAFEN believes that this improvement should be not be compromised by adding unverified names from the 2002 list.

Additional recommendations based on FAFEN’s observations during the Display Period include:

• ECP must ensure that officials appointed for election duties are adequately trained in order to reduce the chances of election day irregularities.
• ECP must increase the remuneration of voters’ registration officials as well as election day polling staff to a level that it becomes an incentive, rather than a burden, for them.
• ECP must improve its coordination with its district offices as well as improve its operational planning in order to ensure timely flow of instructions and materials through the various tiers of the election administration.
• ECP must avoid using school/college teachers during the school year for election-related duties so that the educational process is not disrupted.
• ECP must engage women in future enumeration and all other election processes in order to ensure maximum participation of women voters and candidates.
• Political parties should work closely with voters to ensure that the electoral roll finalized by the ECP in accordance with the Supreme Court decision is correct and free of errors.

To download complete report, click here

2008 GE Observation Summary and Recommendation for Electoral Reforms
June 21, 2008