ISLAMABAD: Preparations for the conduct of the July 25 general elections have entered in their final stage.
Polling stations through out the country are getting equipped with the election essentials like ballot papers and ballot boxes today.
A total of 3675 candidates will be contesting elections for 270 National Assembly seats and 570 provincial assembly seats.
In two National Assembly constituencies and six provincial assembly constituencies, polls have been delayed due to various reasons.
In Sindh’s PS-6, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) candidate Mir Sher Bukhari has been declared the uncontested winner.
Other than PPP, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), 122 political parties with religious, nationalist or ideological affiliations are contesting the 2018 elections.
85,252 polling stations and 241,132 polling booths have been established throughout the country. Out of the 85,252 polling stations, 17000 have been declared highly prone to security threats. 105.96 million voters have registered their vote and around 50 millions voters are men while 40 million voters are women.
201 millions ballot papers have been printed, green for the National Assembly and white for the Provincial Assembly. Also, for the first time in the country’s history security features have been added to the ballot paper.
The ECP has issued detailed guideline regarding the vote casting procedure. It is essential for all voters to bring their Valid CNIC with them to the polling stations and stamp only at the symbol of the party they wish to vote for as otherwise their vote will be discarded. Polling will commence from 8 am tomorrow and last till 6 pm.
This is also the first time that election duty is not only being given to people belonging to educational institutions. More than 6000 teachers from the Federal Directorate will be on duty this time around. They have been given proper training with regard to the electoral procedures.
All election necessities like ballot papers and ink are being delivered to the polling stations under the supervision of army personnel. Army officials are also deployed within the polling stations alongside the presiding officers. The required material will be delivered to polling stations in urban areas by evening while polling stations in rural areas will be equipped by midnight. Army officials will be spending the night at the polling stations where they are stationed and they will only leave polling stations when all votes have been counted tomorrow.
Police officials deployed at the polling stations can not leave the station before the completion of vote counting.