ECP seeks amendments for i-voting, EVMs

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has decided to write a letter to the provincial government for bringing amendments related to the i-voting and electronic voting machines (EVMs), ARY News reported on Monday.

The Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) held an important session of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) regarding the local government (LG) polls in Islamabad and Punjab.

According to the declaration, the commission will write a letter to the interior ministry to issue a notification regarding the number of reserved seats in Islamabad.

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The commission instructed the interior ministry to issue notification for Islamabad reserved seats by July 12. The ECP also directed the concerned authorities to provide finalised rules for election expenditures.

The ECP officials briefed the CEC that the registration process of the electoral groups in Punjab will be concluded by July 17.

It has also been decided to write a letter to the provincial government for bringing amendments related to i-voting and EVMs.

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On Saturday, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) issued the schedule of by-election of local bodies in different districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

According to a notification, the polling will be held on August 27 across KP, while the candidates will be able to submit their nomination papers for the LG polls till July 19.

The election tribunal will publish final list of candidates on August 2 while the results of LG polls would be announced on August 30.

It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had won the second phase of local government (LG) elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa held in April this year.

In the second phase, voting was held in 65 tehsils in 18 districts of the provinces. The party clinched victory on 32 seats.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) won 5; Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), 3; Awami National Party (ANP), Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) and independents 2 each, and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), the Rah-e-Haq Party (RHP) and Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM) one each.