The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday denied making any changes to voter registration data after complaints to the contrary emerged on social media.
The electoral watchdog said there was "no truth" to any such reports, advising citizens who were facing an inconvenience to immediately reach out to the ECP with necessary documents for redressal of complaints.
The statement came as social media was inundated with complaints in the last 48 hours that the commission had changed the voter registration data of several citizens without informing them, with most claiming that their polling stations have been moved by the election watchdog to inconvenient locations much farther than their previous allocations.
These complaints, which also include some by those who claim their votes had been cancelled by the commission after it wrongly registered them as having died, started pouring in after the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf asked citizens to confirm their voter registration information with the ECP by messaging their Identity Card (CNIC) numbers to 8300.
Since then, dozens of Twitter users have posted screenshots of what they say are updates made to their polling stations, which have been changed from the ones allocated during the 2018 general election, and in some cases have been moved quite far away from their areas of residence.
One social media user said his polling station, which was just 700 metres from his house, had been moved six kilometres away. Another complained that his polling station was now located 20 kilometres away from his area of residence.
Another user said that some voters had been "thrown as far as few hundred miles".
Dawn.com has found that updates to polling stations may have been made after some staffers used the commission's SMS service to find out that information about their voting centres, which was available up until a few days ago, is not being shared by the ECP anymore. It is not clear why the details of the polling station have been omitted by the ECP in these messages for those who have voted before.
Instead, the commission is sharing details of respective display centres — where all voting information of citizens will be on display. A display centre may not necessarily end up becoming your polling station.
'Pre-poll rigging'
Journalists, politicians and citizens expressed concern over these complaints, raising questions about whether it was an attempt at pre-poll rigging to manipulate the elections.
Talking to Dawn.com, PTI leader Zulfi Bukhari said these measures were an attempt to weaken the PTI's "strong areas".
He said these changes were being done haphazardly "without much thought with only one purpose, to weaken PTI strongholds".
Journalist Amir Zia said the ECP had "messed up" and countless voters would have to go to far off places to exercise their voting right.
Journalist Sumaira Jajja said she had ECP messages from September and December which showed old polling stations. "When did the change to new polling station happen? Checking up with family and friends, this isn't just limited to Karachi," she said.
PTI MPA Riaz Haider alleged that his vote had been cancelled as the ECP data suggested he had died. He lashed out at the chief election commissioner and raised concerns about the institution's performance over such an error.
Khawaja Khalid Farooq, former head of the National Counter Terrorism Authority of Pakistan, said there was something "seriously wrong" with the "inconvenient displacement" of voting centres.
"What is this nonsense. Will ECP explain?" he asked.
Some messages from the ECP apparently showed final and unfinalised details. One social media user raised questions about what that differentiation meant.
"This will be massive pre-poll rigging if voter's constituencies are managed like this," she said.
One person alleged that it was a plan by the ECP to distribute the PTI's vote bank to far-flung areas to "make it impossible for voters to reach their polling booths on election day".
Additional reporting by Javed Hussain.
