Delegation of Napalese Election Commission
Islamabad, the 10th March 2015.- A six members delegation of Napalese Election Commission called on the Hon’le Chief Election Commissioner of Pakistan Mr. Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza and Hon’ble Members of the Election Commission here in ECP’s Secretariat Islamabad today. The delegation was led by Mr. Dolakh Bahadur Gurung, Hon’ble Election Commissioner of Napalese Election Commission.
The Hon’ble CEC, in his welcoming remarks, said that the ECP enjoys independence which is guaranteed by the Constitution. Being charged with the constitutional mandate to hold free, fair and transparent elections, the ECP has always focused on efforts to make elections as transparent as possible. During its journey, as a first step, the ECP focused its efforts on an accurate and error-free electoral roll entered into an agreement with NADRA who have with them an up-to-date civil registry database. The ECP used the civil registry database of NADRA to develop our Computerized Electoral Rolls System (CERS) in which National Identity Card number is being used as unique identifier. This has eliminated the chances of multiple enrolment of a voter. The records of deceased voters are removed periodically to keep the electoral rolls updated. Presently, there are 86.6 million registered voters in Pakistan while the ECP is in the process of registering 7.8 million new NIC holders as voters in the next few months.
The Hon’ble CEC further said that in Pakistan, traditionally candidates used to issue voter extracts (called perchees) to the voters outside the polling stations to help them locate their names in the electoral rolls and it used to be alleged that such extracts were also used by the candidates for their election campaign despite the fact that law prohibits the campaign on the poll day. The ECP introduced Electronic-perchee (e-perchee) whereby, an SMS is sent to the voter informing him about his / her name, location of his/her designated polling station, serial number on the electoral roll where the name of the voter is enrolled, number of his/her electoral block, etc., if a citizen sends his NIC number on 8300. This system helped the citizens to confirm their voting details in General Elections-2013. Approximately 55 million voters used this service to check their names on voters list. Result was that our traditional 40-45% turnout reached 55% this time.
Concluding his remarks he said that democratization is an ongoing process and in order to let it continue as such, the Electoral Management Bodies of SAARC countries should benefit from each other in variety of ways. He, therefore, expressed his hope that this visit will be a step forward in that direction and said that such visits among the SAARC countries will enhance mutual cooperation and provide an opportunity to share experiences to improve the electoral process in the member countries.
Mr. Dolakh Bahadur Gurung, Hon’ble Election Commissioner of Napalese Election Commission briefed about the Nepalese Election Commission in detail and reiterated similar hope for mutual cooperation and sharing experiences. He also thanked the Hon’ble CEC and officers of the Election Commission for their warm welcome and fruitful briefing.
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