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| Sunday, 10 October 2004 |
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PAFFREL hails NIC consensus A news release from the People's Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL) states: "Passing the Bill for making National Identity Card compulsory in voting, by Parliament without a division after reading a unanimous consensus by all the political parties as a rare event in the recent political history for the purpose of safeguarding the democratic rights of the people, has to be admired by us as one of the landmark in the political scene of this country for upholding the voting rights of the people. We thankfully salute all the members of Parliament both in the government and the Opposition for this step. "When we look at the history of elections in this country thus far, various malpractices that have taken place in the sphere of voting have to be considered as dark spots that we added to the political history of our country. As an organisation engaged in monitoring elections and standing to uphold the people's democratic rights PAFFREL had been agitating from 90 decade for making our official identity card compulsory for voting to reduce electoral malpractices and impersonations. Therefore, casting a side political differences and making the identity card compulsory for voting by all the people's representatives in Parliament who are committed to a policy of good politics, in considered by us as an exemplary step towards safeguarding the citizens civil and political rights. "However, by merely passing this as an Act in Parliament will not accomplish everything. a realistic step has to be taken to issue identity cards without delay to all the citizens who do not have identity card at present. For that purpose all necessary physical and human resources have to be provided to the Department for Registration of Persons. Similarly urgent solutions and alternative procedures have to be found for the practical problems that will be faced by the people in the process of getting identity cards. Action should also be taken to induce all the citizens to obtain identity cards. As an organisation committed is the protection of democratic rights of the people in this country we are ready to provide any assistance in this matter." |
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