ECP starts preparations for general elections

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has started preparations for holding general elections in the country and initiated compilation of returning officers (ROs) lists, ARY News reported on Friday.

The ECP sent a letter to the provincial election commissioners to provide data of ROs, deputy returning officers (DROs) and assistant returning officers (AROs) by June 1. The commission will start training sessions for the polling staff after receiving lists from the provinces.

In a relevant development today, the chief election commissioner (CEC) chaired an important session held at the office of the Election Commissioner Punjab in Lahore.

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The session was attended by ECP members, secretary, provincial election commissioner and others to review the preparations for the Punjab general polls and local government (LG) elections.

EC Punjab Saeed Gul briefed the participants regarding the preparations for the upcoming polls.

He briefed that there are 144 National Assembly (NA) and 297 provincial assembly (PA) constituencies in Punjab. 441 ROs and 41 DROs will be deputed across Punjab in the upcoming polls, he added.

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Gul said that they will ensure the deputation of impartial officials for the upcoming polls. Moreover, the verification of 53,300 polling stations was also completed over the recommendation of the district election commissioners.

Saeed Gul said that the staff training and arrangements of the election material are also satisfactory.

During the meeting, it was briefed that by-polls in NA-108 Faisalabad and NA-118 Nankana Sahib will be held on May 28 and all arrangements were completed.

It is pertinent to mention here that the tenure of LG representatives had expired on December 31 – 2021 in Punjab. The authorities completed new delimitations on February 12 – 2023 under Punjab Local Government (LG) Act.

The EC Punjab said that registration of electoral groups will be initiated in accordance with the schedule and the commission will perform its constitutional duty of conducting LG polls besides ensuring the timely preparations for the upcoming polls.