BAHAWALPUR, Dec 25: Election Commission Secretary Kanwar Dilshad has said that printing of ballot papers would be completed by Jan 5. He claimed that the use of special paper had eliminated the possibility of fraud and forgery.

Talking to APP on Tuesday, he said the EC had made arrangements to hold the elections in a free, fair and transparent manner.

Mr Dilshad said that 2,252 candidates were contesting for 272 National Assembly seats and 5,083 were in the run for 577 provincial assembly seats.

He said the EC had received 698 complaints about the violation of code of conduct, but most of them were found baseless.

The EC secretary said that Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Qazi Muhammad Farooq was a very experienced person, having served as a senior judge, assistant returning officer, district returning officer, provincial election commissioner and head of appellant tribunal during previous elections.

He said the transparent ballot boxes would be provided to all polling stations. More than 81 million voters would be eligible to cast their votes, he added.

In reply to a question, Mr Dilshad said that 98 per cent of polling stations would be set up in government buildings.

He said that the federal and provincial authorities had been told about sensitive polling stations and they would make arrangements to maintain law and order.