ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan on Monday sent a summary to President Mamnoon Hussain proposing holding of the 2018 general elections on any date between July 25 and 27.

A senior ECP official told Dawn that the president would announce the date for polls in the next couple of days and the election schedule would be announced afterwards.

He said under Section 57 (1) of the Elections Act, 2017, the president was supposed to announce the date for elections in consultation with the ECP.

“According to the law, the commission was required to announce the schedule for the polls within seven days of the announcement of the election date,” he added.

The five-year constitutional term of the National Assembly and the Punjab Assembly will end on May 31 while the Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan assemblies will complete their terms on May 28.

Referring to Article 224 of the Constitution, which says elections for the national and provincial assemblies are to be held within 60 days following the day the term of the assemblies expires, he said: “Since a single date for the polls is to be announced, the general election is supposed to be conducted before July 28.”

The official said the ECP laid the groundwork for the polls and its activities were on schedule. He said the delimitation of constituencies had already taken place and the data entry of the electoral rolls was in the final stages. He said that the district returning officers (DROs), returning officers (ROs) and presiding officers (POs) had already been appointed and the training of polling staff had also been started.

In a related development, a senior official of the ECP told a Senate panel that the commission was ready to hold free, fair and transparent elections in line with its constitutional mandate.

ECP’s Additional Secretary (training) Zafar Iqbal Hussain informed the Senate Standing Committee on Parliamentary Affairs, which met here with Sassui Palejo in the chair, that the commission had already announced its plan of action to hold polls and was well on track as far its implementation was concerned.

He said around 85,000 polling stations with some 285,000 polling booths would be established for the elections across the country. He said security cameras would be installed at most sensitive polling stations.

He said training had already been imparted to 133 DROs while training to 933 ROs, regional election commissioners (RECs) and district election commissioners (DECs) was underway and would be completed by June 1.

He said training of POs will be completed by July 15.

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2018