LAHORE, Feb 13: As the authenticity of over 21 million registered voters possessing the (old) national identity cards (NICs) has not been verified by the National Database Registration Authority, the possibility of use of bogus votes on Feb 18 cannot be ruled out.

The NIC had ceased to exist as an authentic document since Jan 31, 2005. The NIC holders, however, are allowed only to use it for casting the vote in local bodies and general elections.

The Election Commission of Pakistan had completed the registration process for new voters in Oct 2007, and subsequently issued a list comprising over 81 million eligible voters. Nadra issued computerised national identity cards (CNICs) to over 60 million people during the period. In the absence of the record of 21 million voters possessing old NICs, it would be very difficult to ascertain the `genuineness’ of voters. The anomaly also makes it probable that the votes of dead people are cast by the living.

A source says bogus vote through computerised national identity card (CNIC) may also be cast since there is no electronic system installed at the polling stations to verify that thumb impression on it belongs to the actual voter. However, he maintains that the chances of casting bogus votes through CNIC are not as high as in case of NIC.

He says since photograph was not mandatory for issuance of NICs or CNICs to females, the genuineness of a woman voter cannot easily be ensured. The authority has recently seized 3,500 fake CNICs of women in Quetta, he adds.

“Nadra can only verify the authenticity of 21 million NIC holders once they apply for the computerised card,” he says, adding that the authority would have completed the process of registering over 80 million people had the ECP given it a go ahead keeping in view the election schedule.

The preparation of electoral rolls is said to be one of the most essential prerequisite for holding elections and any lapse in it has direct impact on the credibility of the exercise.

The source further said when ECP in July 2006 announced the compulsion of CNIC for getting registered as a voter as many as 40,000 people had started applying to the authority for issuance of the CNIC every day as compared to nearly 17,000 per day’s previous average. However, after a few days of the implementation of its order, the ECP had to withdraw it, buckling under the pressure of political parties, and the number of applicants dropped again.

In the 2002 general elections, over 71 million voters were on the electoral rolls. The number swelled to over 81 million by 2008 in accordance with population growth rate of 2.7 per cent per annum.