ECP briefs Senate on general elections, labels 55pc polling stations as 'sensitive'

“A total 91,809 polling stations will be set up of which 49,919 have been designated as sensitive"

ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has labelled more than 50 percent polling stations planned for general elections next year as “sensitive”.

Briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Parliamentary Affairs here on Tuesday, ECP Secretary Omar Hamid Khan said that around 55 percent of the polling stations to be established are sensitive.

“A total 91,809 polling stations will be established of which 49,919 have been designated as sensitive or highly sensitive” he added.

He said 17,411 of these have been categorised as highly sensitive and another 32,508 as sensitive while 41,809 are designated as ‘normal’.

Moreover, secretary Khan said a report on preliminary delimitation would be published on Sept 27. However, a period of approximately 60 days would be required for filing and disposal of representations, he continued.

The meeting of the standing committee was held with Senator Taj Haider in the chair and was briefed on the preparations for the upcoming general elections.

Secretary Khan said there were 266 National Assembly constituencies and 593 provincial assemblies. Around one million polling staff would be required for the upcoming elections, he told the meeting.

About the methods for the consolidation of results in the general elections, he said that electronic devices carrying the software developed by the ECP would be used to send snapshots of Form-45 to the returning officers, and the software was also equipped to keep track of time and place of snapshots in order to ensure the legitimacy of elections.

The Senate committee recommended that the time period for filing of representations should be curtailed from 30 days to seven days in order to ensure that the general elections were held without delay.

The committee also drew attention towards the constitutional obligation to conduct general elections within 90 days after the dissolution of the national assembly. It, however, recommended the ECP to announce the election schedule at the earliest to remove any uncertainty regarding the conduct of elections in the country.

While discussing the funds of development schemes, Senator Haider stressed that the funds should be allocated to approved schemes.

The ECP secretary said that there was no ban on development schemes approved prior to August 15.