Authorities in Pakistan play blame game over 0.5 million errors in electoral rolls

Islamabad, Apr 18(ANI): The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) are pointing fingers at each other over 0.5 million irregularities in the draft voter lists .

Various large-scale incongruities have been noticed in draft electoral rolls that were put on display in over 55,000 centers across the country for public scrutiny.

The ECP blames NADRA's data entry operators for the anomalies, the latter blames teachers hired by the ECP who conducted the door-to-door verification of voters last year.

According to ECP officials, the staff at NADRA made slip-ups in the data entry process, which were identified by the commission when it compared the computerized rolls with the original copy in its records.

Whereas NADRA officials claim that such discrepancies arose because the teachers hired by ECP during the door-to-door verification campaign did not personally visit the voters in many districts and filled the forms while sitting in their offices.

The ECP assured the Supreme Court that the new 'error-free' computerized electoral rolls will be ready by mid-May. (ANI)