Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: A high-level meeting of the Planning Committee chaired by the Election Commission secretary took decisions to make election fair, transparent and efficient.

The meeting was held at the Election Commission Secretariat in which all the four provincial election commissioners also took part. It was discussed in detail and decided that the revision of the electoral rolls would strictly be started as per the (ECP-approved) timeline, starting from August 1, 2016.

The provincial election commissioners were directed to ensure comprehensive arrangements to facilitate public during the electoral process. A publicity campaign would also be launched simultaneously to motivate the public to make the revision and verification process successful.

It was also decided that the voter education campaign, encompassing various activities for the public awareness would be carried out. The education programme for voters would focus on improving voter turnout, reducing male-female gap and motivating women, youth, students and other neglected, unprivileged groups both in rural and urban areas to actively participate in the polling process.

For this purpose Dis-Vot-Ed-Com (DVEC) would be established at the district level under the chairmanship of the officers concerned and departments and lawyers would be members of the committees. The meeting also decided that the verification of polling stations established during the general elections in 2013 is being started to ascertain the suitability and availability of the buildings.

The teams for the said purpose were being constituted which would visit each and every polling station and ensure installment of GIS system in all the buildings to facilitate the public on polling day. It was also decided to have storage facilities at divisional level and relevant complementary staff to maintain the electoral record.

It was also emphasised that all the efforts should be made to establish polling stations at ground floors to facilitate the elderly and the disabled persons. A well designed training program was being devised to develop and enhance the capacity building of the officers of the election commission. The training of the first batch of the officers will be started in the month of August, 2016.