ECP starts preparations to hold elections on 48 Senate seats

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has started preparations to hold Senate elections on 48 seats, citing sources, ARY News reported on Saturday.

The preparations will be concluded in three phases as the schedule of Senate polls is likely to be unveiled in the second week of February, sources said.

The training sessions of the concerned officers have been initiated by the ECP, whereas, the training of polling staff will be completed in two phases. The three-day training of first batch will start from next week on Saturday, Sunday and Monday which will be conducted by master trainers of ECP.

Read: Sadiq Sanjrani supports Senate elections through open ballot

The second batch of the polling staff will join the training session on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in the next week regarding the election conduct. Senior officers of all four provinces will also get training.

Moreover, the election commission started work on the deputation of returning officers and polling staff for the upcoming Senate polls. The voting will be conducted on the basis of proportional representation and ‘single transferable vote’.

However, it is still undecided for holding the voting through secret or open ballot until a verdict came out on proceedings underway for the presidential reference.

Read: ECP opposes Senate polls through open ballot in reply to SC

The polls will be organised for 48 seats in the Upper House as legislators will vote for the candidates contesting on 11 seats each in Punjab and Sindh, 12 each in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and two in Islamabad.

It is to be mentioned here that the federal government had moved Supreme Court to seek its opinion over holding Senate elections through open ballot.

A five-judge larger bench, headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed and comprising of Justice Mushir Alam, Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan and Justice Yahya Afridi is currently hearing the presidential reference.