Islamabad, 31 January: The 8300 short code of the Election Commission to check one’s polling station details is inherently discriminatory as poor voters can’t access this facility due to policy of cellarer companies. It is worth stating here that recently some newspapers and TV channels including APP and PTV had announced that the ECP would provide free 8300 SMS service.
PATTAN-Coalition38 – one of the largest networks of civil society on election observation have run tests across the country by using various packages of mobile companies. We note with deep concern that this service can’t be availed by anybody whose credit balance is not sufficient. Therefore, this discriminatory policy has been causing differential impact and as a result denying poor people from getting advance information about their polling stations.
We would like to highlight that lack of prior information about polling station locations can deter millions of poor voters from casting their vote. As a result, it will disenfranchise them from electing their representatives. It is worth mentioning here that one of the major strategic goals of the Election Commission has been to increase voters turn out in the elections. Introduction of costly 8300 SMS service directly undermines the ECP’s goal. It is also important to state here that while the ECP is spending huge amount of money on campaign for the use of 8300 service but failing to remove the barrier to its use.
We therefore appeal to the Election Commission to clear the confusion regarding 8300 service, and secondly, we also urge the mobile companies to remove restriction on minimum credit balance for the 8300 short message service.
