ECP SEEKS LEGISLATION ON MANDATORY CNIC FOR VOTER ENROLMENT
Islamabad, 14th June, 2010: The Election Commission of Pakistan has sent draft bill to the Government seeking legislation on making Computerized National Identity Card (CNIC) mandatory for enrolment as voter. This was disclosed by Mr. Ishtiak Ahmad Khan, Secretary Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), while referring to a vital and much debated issue of making CNIC mandatory for enrolment as voter. ECP has already sent a draft bill to the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs for legislation regarding the Computerized National Identity Card (CNIC) to be declared as a prerequisite for registration as voter, he observed.
While describing the background of the proposed amendments, the Secretary said that in the consultative meeting with the leaders of political parties, it was unanimously agreed upon to make CNIC compulsory for registration as voter as well as for casting of vote. The political leaders strongly recommended that a person holding old NIC should not be allowed to cast his vote and that all old NICs should be cancelled. They had further suggested that the ECP, in collaboration with NADRA, should make a mechanism for registration of voters that should become automatic with issuance of the CNIC.
The Secretary ECP further said that in this regard and for ensuring the accuracy of electoral rolls and fairness of the elections, the ECP has proposed certain amendments in the Electoral Rolls Act,1974 {Section 6 (2)} and the Representation of the People Act, 1976 Section 33 (1) and 33 (3) (a). Under the proposed provisions Section 6 (2) of the Electoral Rolls Act, a person shall not be entitled to be enrolled as a voter unless he possesses the CNIC issued to him under the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) Ordinance, 2000( VIII of 2000). Besides, the proposed amendments in the aforementioned sections of the Representation of the People Act, 1976 envisage that a person is bound to produce his CNIC at the time of casting his vote and failure to produce such CNIC would serve as a restriction to casting of his vote.
However, the ECP would not be in a position to enter into an effective collaboration with NADRA until the proposed bill is passed by the Parliament, Mr. Ishtiak Ahmad Khan observed. Once the law is in place, the ECP would have no legal hurdle in preparing credible Computerized Electoral Rolls (CERs) in collaboration with NADRA. It is pertinent to mention here that NADRA has already claimed to have prepared the CNICs of around 90% of the eligible voters and this further justifies the idea to legislate on it while declaring the CNIC as mandatory for registration and casting of vote. Besides, this would help preparing complete, accurate and updated computerized electoral rolls for ensuring free, fair and transparent elections for all times to come, the Secretary added.