In a bid to prepare error-free electoral lists, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has finalised 85 million preliminary electoral rolls to be displayed from today (Wednesday) to March 20 at around 50,000 centers across the country, it was learnt.

According to sources in the ECP, the commission has earlier sent the preliminary electoral rolls to National Database Registration Authorities (Nadra) for verification, which would be available from today (Wednesday) at 50,000 display centres across the country till March 20.

During the period, the sources said that new voters who are missing in the lists would also register themselves with the display centres across the country where over 65,000 trained officials of the ECP would be available for correcting mistakes and registering new voters.

An official of the ECP told Business Recorder that the initial lists would be displayed at 129 districts of all the provinces for 21 days for the purpose of receiving complaints and correcting mistakes so as to prepare final and error-free voters' lists.

The preliminary electoral rolls will be displayed in 44 districts of Punjab, 26 districts of Sindh, 29 districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and 30 districts of Balochistan, the official added.

The ECP is also launched system of Short Message Service (SMS) of 85 million voters throughout the country today (Wednesday).

By using this service, the eligible voters would be able to send Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC) number on 8300 and in response, the voter would get the voting details like CNIC No, Electoral Area name, Block Code, Tehsil/District and Serial Number.In order to protect the privacy of a voter, the name, parentage and home address would not be shown in the SMS.

According to the ECP, the service would minimise the possibility of errors in the final electoral rolls.

Apart from the display centers, this service could be considered as Virtual Display Centers where the voters sitting anywhere in the country, be able to check his/her vote's detail, said a statement of the ECP.

According to the official the whole process till printing of the final electoral rolls would be completed till May mid.

The sources said that the ECP has added 37 million new voters to the new electoral rolls, which would be finalised after March 20.

They further said that 40.95 million voters have been registered in Punjab, 10.93 million in Sindh, 10.2 million in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 3.3 million in Balochistan, 1.68 million in Federally Administered Tribal Areas, while 0.791 million voters have been added to the preliminary electoral rolls in the Federal Capital.

The new electoral rolls are being prepared on the directives of the Supreme Court after the old lists were challenged due to serious flaws.

The apex court has earlier given February 25 as final deadline to the ECP to purge the bogus voters and finalise the new electoral rolls.

However, the ECP did not meet the deadline, citing infeasibility on technical grounds.