General elections: ECP starts training of DROs, ROs

ISLAMABAD: The training of the newly appointed District Returning Officers (DROs) and Returning Officers (ROs) to facilitate the oversight of the 2024 general elections has commenced today (Sunday), ARY News reported.

According to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) spokesperson, 144 District Returning Officers and 859 Returning Officers are being given training.

The development comes after Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan suspended a Lahore High Court (LHC) order on the appointment of returning officers (ROs) and district returning officers (DROs) from the bureaucracy, which cast uncertainty over holding of general polls.

ECP spokesperson stated that training of the DROs and ROs will be completed by December 19.

According to an election schedule issued by the electoral watchdog, the public notice would be issued by the Returning Officer (RO) on December 19 with the dates for filing nominations from Dec 20-22.

The ECP, in its notification, stated that the names of the nominated candidates would be published on Dec 23 while the last date for scrutiny of their nomination papers would be from Dec 24-30.

Moreover, the last date for filing appeals against the decisions of Returning Officer (RO) on rejecting or accepting nomination papers is January 3. The last date for deciding the appeals by an appellate tribunal on Jan 10.

The notification stated that the revised list of candidates will be published on Jan 11 and the last date for withdrawal of candidature is Jan 12.

Meanwhile, the electoral watchdog said that election symbols will be allotted to political parties on Jan 13 with polls set for Feb 8.

“The election programme shall also apply to the seats reserved for women and non-Muslims in the National and provincial assemblies. Last date of filling of separate priority list for seats reserved for women and non-Muslims before the ROs is Dec 22,” the notification concluded.