Free And Fair Election Network (Fafen), a group of 30 NGOs, is actively working to mobilise people by employing innovative ideas to secure their cooperation in the ongoing voters' registration and verification process.
NGO activists are performing stage plays and skits to urge the people to visit the display centres set up by Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in their respective areas to see the lists and get their names registered as voters if were not mentioned there. This was said by Abdul Saboor, the programme co-ordinator of Pattan Development Organisation, an NGO functioning as general secretary of Fafen.
Different NGOs adopted different means to convey the message and they would also monitor the election process, Saboor said.
NGO teams accompanying drum-beating men were also making announcements in the style of traditional 'manadi' besides announcements through mosques, mega phones while visiting the target areas by rickshaws or other vehicles, public meetings and advocacy through councillors, community leaders and politicians. Some 750 Fafen activists were working in target areas throughout the country to mobilise the people.
The 30 NGOs' group is also keeping a close liaison with government authorities to convey what problems people were facing and suggest measures to solve them. ECP has set up 45,403 display centres across the country to display the electoral rolls to convey information to the public. Some 700 such centres were set up in 129 union councils of Multan district.
Voters' education programme (VEP) was also the part of Fafen's plan being executed in cooperation with ECP and NGO Pattan is holding VEPs in six districts of Sindh and Punjab including Multan, Lahore, Faisalabad, Muzaffargarh, Hyderabad, and Badin.
Fafen is working in cooperation with Asia Foundation and it was formed to evolve measures to ensure error-free preparation of new electoral rolls, involve the public in registration process, and identify difficulties being faced by the people and to help solve them in cooperation with ECP, Nadra and local representatives.
Over 600 men and 695 women were interviewed by the NGO in the selected 14 UCs and it was observed that 203 men and 327 women had no computerised national identity cards (CNICs), while 117 men and 214 women were not listed in the new electoral rolls. In response to feedback from the NGO, Nadra Multan authorities had sent its MRV team to target areas where around 2900 tokens have been issued to the people willing to obtain CNICs.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.