AJK says 90pc voter list discrepancies fixed

MUZAFFARABAD: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Election Commission said on Saturday that nearly 90 per cent of discrepancies in the electoral rolls had been corrected, and announced that the schedule for the upcoming elections would be issued in mid-May.

The update was shared during a high-level meeting chaired by Chief Election Commissioner retired Justice Ghulam Mustafa Mughal at Jammu and Kashmir House in Islamabad. The meeting was attended by Election Commission member Syed Nazeerul Hassan Gillani, Senior Member Board of Revenue Sardar Mohammad Zafar Khan, commissioners, deputy commissioners and other officials.

Deputy Commissioner Bagh Asim Khalid Awan, who is leading a committee set up to address errors in the voter lists, briefed participants on the progress made in resolving discrepancies that had drawn public concern and criticism from political quarters.

Officials told the meeting that around 90pc of the correction work had been completed and that the remaining issues would be settled within the next few days.

CEC stresses transparent rolls

Addressing the participants, Justice Mughal said transparent electoral rolls were necessary to ensure free, fair and impartial elections. He praised the administration for its efforts and said the preparation and revision of voter lists should become a continuous, year-round process in the future.

He said public concern over the discrepancies was understandable, while stressing the need for safeguards to stop similar problems from arising again. The chief election commissioner also claimed that some individuals had set up labs to prepare identity cards and pressure the administration into registering votes.

He suggested that new voters should be included to avoid further complications, while saying the relevant committee could make decisions according to the circumstances. He also emphasised the need to determine responsibility through a proper report on the matter.

Justice Mughal said the election schedule for the forthcoming polls would be issued in mid-May.

Election Commission member Gillani thanked the administration for supporting the electoral process and said most flaws in the voter lists had been addressed through coordinated efforts led by the deputy commissioner of Bagh.

The senior member board of revenue described the Election Commission’s confidence in the administration as an honour and expressed hope that such irregularities would not recur.

How the discrepancies emerged

During his briefing, Mr Awan said the discrepancies surfaced during data entry and processing of electoral rolls for the 2026 elections, causing around 167,000 voters to be left out of the updated data.

He said the 2022 electoral rolls had been used as the base record, while deceased voters were removed and the records of married women were updated. However, he said technical and sequencing problems during data integration with Nadra caused errors in several districts.

According to Mr Awan, scrutiny showed that fresh entries from some areas did not appear in the system, while data from certain constituencies was shifted to other districts because of technical and filtering issues during processing.

He said reports from Poonch, Palandri, Bagh and Muzaffarabad had been completed, while work in Mirpur, Bhimber, Neelum and Haveli was close to completion.

The meeting was informed that the electoral rolls contain around 2.85 million voters. Officials said nearly 100,000 voters had died since the previous rolls were prepared, while around 500,000 new voters had been added. However, about 167,000 of the fresh entries did not appear in the updated data because of technical problems, leading to the controversy over the voter lists.