General elections: ECP decides strict scrutiny of ROs

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) continued its preparations for the general elections and decided to conduct strict scrutiny of the returning officers (ROs), ARY News reported on Wednesday.

The ECP expanded the scope of scrutiny of the ROs and sought informal reports from the concerned institutions and officers. The commission completed compilation of lists of the ROs for the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) assemblies.

The scrutiny process of the ROs for the National Assembly (NA), Sindh and Balochistan assemblies is underway. The commission will depute the ROs for completing the scrutiny process which could delay the deputations, sources said.

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As per the law, the commission is bound to deputy ROs two months before announcing the schedule of the general elections. The ECP decided to expedite the deputation of the District Returning Officers (DROs) and Returning Officers (ROs).

Separate ROs will be deputed in NA and provincial assemblies during the general polls. The ROs will prepare the polling schemes for concerned constituencies after their deputations.

For general polls, ROs will be appointed in 859 constituencies.

Moreover, the election commission commenced the training sessions of the lead trainers ahead of the general elections. ECP sources told ARY News that the lead trainers will attend three-day training sessions.

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The lead trainers will then conduct training sessions for the DROs and ROs. The commission is currently busy finalising the lists of the DROs and ROs.

A few days ago, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has sought applications from political parties to issue election symbols ahead of the general polls.

The commission sought applications from all political parties even if they had already applied for special election symbols.

The ECP spokesperson asked the political parties to submit written applications by July 19. The political parties are also bound to submit affidavit for the allotment of the election symbols.