F.P. Report
ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday extended the deadline for registration of voters till April 30 for the forthcoming general elections.
According to ECP officials, the deadline has been extended on requests received from different segments of society.
The electoral body asked all those who are still not registered as voters to visit a nearby display centre or the district election commission office to have their votes registered or their details corrected on the electoral rolls.
The electoral body has put on display electoral rolls containing names of 104 million people at 14, 000 display centres across the country from March 26. There are 8.1 million new voters as per preliminary voter lists.
According to ECP officials, voters can confirm their registration and acquire details of their constituency on the mobile phones by sending a text message on 8300.
As per initial voter lists, the total number of voters stands at 104,267,581, which included 59,740,095 in Punjab, 22,066,558 in Sindh, 15,075,616 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 4,194,311 in Balochistan, 2,460,804 in Fata and 730,197 in Islamabad.
Earlier, the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) had handed over the electoral rolls to the ECP.
In a statement, Nadra said that voters can contact their nearest display centre to have their voting constituency updated. It said that so far, only 0.3 million people have availed the service.
Earlier this month, Nadra informed the top court that preliminary software has been developed to extend the electronic voting facility to overseas Pakistanis in general elections.
The judges observed that the development may be shared with all other stakeholders including Election Commission of Pakistan and parliamentarians so that the milestone may be achieved in time.
