Bogus voters on electoral rolls

National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) has provided statistical evidence of what has been invariably alleged by losing candidates in our national, provincial and, indeed, bye-elections: the number of bogus voters is significant enough to change the outcome of the election result.
Deputy Chairman Nadra, Tariq Malik, substantiated this charge while talking to Business Recorder: "we matched 81 million voters enrolled in the current voters list with the Authority's database and only 44 million were found correct and the remaining 37 million were deleted." Malik revealed that, Nadra had made two suggestions in talks with the Election Commission of Pakistan: to re-demarcate and expand the number of census blocks from 102,000 to 145,000 and those with two addresses must specify where they would cast their vote from.
Malik urged that "only those persons be included in the (electoral) list who have registered with Nadra after 2008," and suggested making the production of Nadra issued computerised identity cards mandatory to ensure the integrity of the electoral process. These suggestions must be supported by all political parties as they would lay to rest these tiresomely routine charges of rigging invariably levelled by the losing candidate.
Those who maintain that with the advent of a democratically elected government there is little need for any improvement in the system must recall that while hijacking electoral results through massive rigging has been a standard normal practice of dictators yet serious allegations of rigging have also been levelled against the PPP, MQM as well as the PML (N), parties that pride themselves on their democratic credentials, post-February 2008. It is therefore relevant to note that the election results of Gilgit-Baltistan were challenged by not only the opposition PML (N) but also by the government's coalition partner, the MQM.
In addition, Tehrik-i-Insaaf led by Imran Khan has also provided proof of rigging in bye-elections held in Punjab. Thus one would sincerely hope that the PPP in the centre and the provincial governments do not hinder the preparation of electoral lists developed through the transparent process proposed by Nadra. And they must be guided by one fact that all parties tend to forget when they are in power: that a time will come that they would be in opposition and data integrity would ensure that nobody can manipulate election results with ease.
The need to ensure electoral data integrity from the perspective of all democratic countries is not in doubt. One has only to recall the election results in the state of Florida, where Jeb Bush was Governor in 2000 and where questionable ballots and irregular vote were allegedly cast in favour of George Bush. The United States Supreme Court inexplicably entered the fray and its decision in Bush versus Gore not only terminated a Florida Supreme Court mandated recount of state ballots but seemingly provided a de facto election victory for Bush. The result: 2000 election was very divisive, a factor that was not in the interests of the US, all were agreed. Had this occurred in Pakistan our Supreme Court would have been labelled as partisan by the losing party and the loser would have launched a protest movement. Thus to mitigate this, it is critical for parliament to support Nadra whole-heartedly in its endeavour to usher data integrity.
There is an Election Integrity Forensic Analysis (EIFA) process methodology designed to ensure the integrity of the voting process through a continuous effort of auditing, mitigation, and documentation and thereby maintain the public's trust. It is segmented into four components: (i) data acquisition and imaging whereby forensic images are acquired from randomly selected voting system components; (ii) data is analysed as it is collected so election officials can mitigate any issues that may affect ballot integrity; (iii) data images are analysed to identify changes made to the file system structure and data is processed according to law enforcement forensic standards; and (iv) data archiving whereby all data extracted is preserved for future reference should the election results be contested in courts. One hopes that the political parties proactively engage in supporting such a system in Pakistan.