ISLAMABAD: The District Long-Term Observers (DLTOs) of Free and Fair Election Network have gathered voter registration statistics from 33 reporting districts and found out that 150,000 applications have been filed in 23 districts in the first week of March 2013, says a press release released on Tuesday.
According to this report, FAFEN’s DLTOs interviewed District Election Commissioners (DECs) in 33 reporting districts in the first week of March – 15 in Punjab, 14 in Sindh, three in Balochistan and one in KP.
The DECs in these districts were asked if their offices were receiving applications for voter registration. A total of 29 of the 33 DECs (88%) said they are receiving applications for voter registration. Two DECs said they had stopped receiving applications (6%), and two chose not to share information about voter registration with FAFEN observers (6%).
Of the 29 districts receiving voter registration applications, 23 DECs (79%) said they are compiling statistics (keeping records) on voter registration, while five (17%) were not. The DEC in Bhakkar did not share this information (4%).
In total, among the 33 DECs interviewed, more than two-third DECs (23, or 70%) shared full information with FAFEN about ongoing voter registration statistics. More than one-tenth (4, or 12%) were receiving voter registration applications, but were not keeping records of the number of applications. Two DECs were receiving applications, but declined to share the data with FAFEN (6%), two were not receiving voter registration applications (6%), and two declined to provide any information about voter registration to FAFEN (6%).
The 23 DECs who shared statistics with FAFEN received a total of 156,131 applications for voter registration in the first week of March 2013.
DECs in 13 Punjab districts received the most voter registration applications between March 1 and 7, 2013. They received 132,205 applications, or 85% of the total, in the following districts: Sahiwal, Rawalpindi, Sialkot, Kasur, Jhang, Hafizabad, Bahawalnagar, Gujrawanwala, Jhelum, Narowal, Bahawalpur, Vehari, and Rajanpur. More than 78% of the voter registration applications received in Punjab were in Rawalpindi (103,550), followed by Sahiwal (14,320, or 11%) and Bahawalpur (10,660, or 8%). The remaining 10 districts received 3,675 applications (roughly 3%).
A total of 23,141 voter registration applications were received in 10 districts in Sindh. These districts, with almost 15% of the total applications, were Tando Muhammad Khan (210), Mirpurkhas (7,368), Umerkot (4,482), Jacobabad (4,475), Sanghar (1,025), Tharkparkar (2,012), Ghotki (574), Naushero Feroz (532), Dadu (1,010) and Kamber Shahdakot (1,453).
In Balochistan, 785 voter registration applications (less than 1% of the total) were submitted to the DECs in Mastung (463) and Washuk (322). The DEC in Charsadda (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) received no voter registration applications in the first week of March 2013.
DND
