The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has recommended to the government that the 2018 general elections should be held by the end of July, media reports said on Tuesday.
The dates under consideration for the upcoming elections are July 25 or 26 (Wednesday or Thursday).
The commission has started working on the summary for general elections, which would be forwarded to the president.
Meanwhile, during a meeting on Tuesday, it was decided that heightened security measures will be taken for the upcoming general elections keeping in mind the recent attack on Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal. The meeting was headed by Chief Election Commissioner Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza. The security of polling station was reviewed in the meeting. The chief secretaries from Punjab, Sindh and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) attended the meeting. “Providing security at the polling stations is a big challenge,” ECP Secretary Babar Yaqoob was quoted as saying during the meeting. He said the ECP risked sabotage if any of the returning officers (RO) faced any kind of security risk. “The attack on the interior minister is before everyone,” Yaqoob stated.
The authorities informed that CCTV cameras will be installed in the next four days in all sensitive polling stations across the country. Almost 20,498 polling stations nationwide have been termed sensitive, according to the ECP.
As many as 86,436 polling stations will be set up for the elections- 48,667 in Punjab and 18,647 in Sindh. In Fata and K-P, 14,655 polling stations will be formed and 4,467 in Balochistan.
During the meeting on Tuesday, the ECP also pointed to flaws in the polling system. The meeting was told that 4,834 stations do not have outer boundaries, 6,942 don’t have electricity supply. At least 7,371 lack water supply system and 7,371 polling stations don’t have a central gate. Almost 4,011 stations lack washroom facilities.
Published in Daily Times, May 9th 2018.
