By-elections: Security plan chalked out for sensitive polling stations

ISLAMABAD: A special security plan has been chalked out to ensure foolproof security for sensitive polling station on polling day of by-elections being held on October 14 in 36 constituencies.

According to Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the security plan will be implemented in coordination with the provincial governments and departments concerned.

The ECP official said the commission had planned special security measures for highly sensitive polling stations to ensure security of voters for having better turnout.

He said the ECP has completed all necessary arrangements for holding of by-elections for 11 National Assembly and 25 provincial assemblies’ seats including 12 seats for Punjab Assembly, nine for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and two each for Sindh and Balochistan.

He said the ballot papers for all constituencies in both the National and Provincial assemblies have been printed.

He said foolproof security arrangements had been planned with deployment of security personnel at polling stations to ensure smooth polling process.

The official said as many as 122 candidates have been contesting by-election in 11 constituencies of National Assembly.

He said 28 candidates have been contesting election from NA-131 Lahore-IX, 10 candidates from NA-124 Lahore-II, 12 candidates from NA-103 Faisalabad-III, eight candidates from NA-35 Bannu, 22 candidates from NA-243 Karachi East-II, 11 candidates from NA-69 Gujrat-II, three candidates from NA-65 Chakwal-II, five candidates from NA-63 Rawalpindi-VII, nine candidates from NA-60 Rawalpindi-IV, three candidates from NA-56 Attock-II and 11 candidates from NA-53 Islamabad-II.

He said the commission has already issued amended voters’ lists to the districts concerned as the polling will be held on new electoral rolls.

He said total registered voters in the country have reached the figure of 106,000,239 with 59,243,889 male (55.89 percent) and 46,756,350 female (44.11 percent) voters.

He said out of total registered voters, 60,697,418 were from Punjab, 22,394,212 voters from Sindh, 17,839,845 voters from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (including FATA), 4,302,304 voters from Balochistan and 766,460 voters from federal capital.