KARACHI, Aug 11: More than half a million people have filed applications with the provincial election commission for correction of their addresses in the electoral rolls as shown in their computerised national identity cards, said a senior official of the Election Commission of Pakistan on Saturday.

Provincial Election Commissioner Sono Khan Baloch told Dawn that after display of the initial lists, the election commission received 560,000 applications throughout the province on prescribed Form No 4 for correction of their addresses in the electoral rolls as shown in their CNICs.

He said that those eligible voters whose names had been transferred from their present residences to their permanent addresses in the initial stage of electoral rolls had been updated according to their present residence after fulfilling the formalities.

Similarly, some 80,000 voters of Karachi whose names were transferred to Balochistan due to a technical fault were also stand corrected in the new lists.

However, even now if anyone found their name missing or was unable to verify their name from the list available in the offices of the district registration and assistant registration officers they could get it verified by sending an SMS on 8300 mentioning the CNIC number.

In reply to a question, he said that in case a person still found an anomaly in the address or in name and if it was different from the name and address mentioned in their CNIC, they could get it corrected by filling a form available at the offices or by downloading it from the election commission’s website and submit it to the registration or assistant registration officer.

He said that the people whose names were missing or who had received CNICs after 18 years of age could submit applications under Section 6 of the Electoral Act, 1974.

He said the registration officer had started collecting such applications for enrolling names in the electoral rolls.

When asked about the reduction of total number of voters in Sindh in the new electoral rolls compared to those used in the 2008 general elections, he said that in 2008 rolls names of those persons who have more than one identity cards were also listed. Besides, those rolls also contained names of those persons who did not possess CNICs, he added.

The National Database Registration Authority had scrutinised those lists and prepared the new rolls on the basis of CNIC numbers, he said, adding that another reason of reduction in number of voters was that many people still did not posses CNICs, including those youths who had become eligible voters after attaining the required age of 18 years.

In reply to another question, Mr Baloch said that until a new elections schedule was announced, the mechanism for adding names of fresh voters and correction of addresses and names would remain in place.

He said that the people should take advantage of the facility available to them as Nadra made special arrangements for preparing new CNICs for eligible voters.

Asked whether he had received any complaint from the Sindh government or any party with regard to the new electoral rolls, he said so far he had not received any official communication from anyone.

He asked the people who did not possess CNICs to get their cards prepared by formally applying to Nadra as without CNICs neither their names could be enrolled in the voters’ lists nor would they be eligible to cast their votes in the upcoming elections.