ECP approves appointment of ROs, DROs for general elections 2024

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has approved the appointment of Returning Officers (ROs) and District Returning Officers (DROs) for the forthcoming general elections scheduled for February 8, 2024, ARY News reported on Monday.

The ECP approved the appointment of 859 ROs and 142 DROs for the general elections 2024.

The approval was given in a high-level session chaired by the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja, sources told ARY News.

The commission is expected to issue a formal notification regarding the appointments today. The concerned officials sent a list of officers to the commission for the appointments.

Sources added that a notification has been prepared regarding the appointment of bureaucracy officers as the ROs and DROs. The concerned officials prepared the list of the officers after their confirmation for the election duties.

Additionally, the ECP also prepared the training schedule for the returning officers and district returning officers. The district returning officers will attend the training session at the provincial election commission offices, whereas, the returning officers will be given training at the divisional offices.

The provincial election commissioners will administer oath to the DROs, said sources, adding that DROs will administer oath to the ROs in the respective districts.

It was learnt that deputy commissioners (DCs) of all districts were being appointed as the DROs and ADCs will be appointed as the ROs for the National Assembly (NA) seats.

Related: Delay in general elections: ECP rejects media reports

The assistant deputy commissioners will be appointed as the returning officers (ROs) for the provincial assembly (PA) seats.

On December 5, following the Ministry of Finance’s assurance to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), funds for the upcoming general elections were disbursed.

According to the details, the Ministry of Finance has released Rs 17.4 billion to the ECP for the preparation of the general elections which were scheduled to be held on February 08, 2024.

In July 2023, the Ministry of Finance released Rs 10 billion out of Rs 42 billion from the funds reserved for the preparation of general elections, after which the total amount released to ECP reached Rs 27.40 billion.