ISLAMABAD: The army has deployed over 75,000 troops across the country to strengthen security for the general elections on Saturday.

A military official told Dawn that security cameras had been installed where necessary. Armoured personnel carriers (APCs) will be used in most sensitive areas as and when required and aerial surveillance of these areas will also be conducted. Army’s sniffer dogs have been made available for security duties.

He said army troops had provided security cover since April 19 to five printing presses where 180 million ballot papers had been printed. They transported 650 tons of ballot papers to the districts concerned and their polling stations. Fifty army helicopters flew for 347 hours to transport the ballot papers.

The official said 5,000 troops had been deployed in polling stations identified as most sensitive and indicated that the number could be increased overnight on the basis of assessment of threat by civil administrations in coordination with army commanders of the areas and other authorities.

Meanwhile, talking to reporters, Election Commission (ECP) Secretary Ishtiak Ahmad Khan said the army had also provided personnel from bomb disposal unit as well as sniffer dogs. The army will install security cameras in sensitive places and APCs will be used to provide secure environment to voters.

He said a foolproof system had been put in place to make it impossible for anybody to steal the polls, adding that there was no room for capturing polling stations and stamping ballot papers.

Mr Ishtiak said directives had been issued to presiding officers and other polling staff to discharge their duties without any fear or favour to ensure free, fair and transparent elections.

He said the presiding officers were required to identify voters with the help of voters’ lists with photographs. The presiding officers have been given the powers of first class magistrate for three days and security personnel on duty are bound to obey their orders. He said the presiding officers and law enforcers would face legal proceedings if they failed to act in accordance with the law.

The ECP secretary said ballot boxes would be opened in the presence of polling agents and presiding officers were required to enter the results of their polling stations in a specified form and provide a copy to the polling agents.

The official results would be announced on Sunday evening.

With an efficient result management system in place, there was no room for change in the results during transportation of ballot papers from presiding officers to returning officers or at any other stage, Mr Ishtiak added.

ORIGINAL CNIC: The ECP secretary said voters were required to produce their original national identity cards to obtain ballot papers; no other document would be acceptable as a substitute.

IMPERSONATION: He said impersonators would find it hard to cast votes in place of others.

Talking to reporters, Chairman of the National Database Registration Authority (Nadra) Tariq Malik said every valid registered voter is a CNIC holder and forgery would be detected. He said Nadra’s fingerprint identification system would not only establish validity of a voter but also identify an impersonator. He said impersonators were bound to face strict punitive action.

Mr Malik said electoral rolls were backed by authentic biometrics against every voter, adding that the voter’s photograph would be used for identification before issuance of ballot paper. The list also has an empty column where voters will affix their fingerprints using magnetised ink. The fingerprints will be used to confirm the identity of voters and any impersonation will be detected.

He said Nadra had set up a complaint cell at its headquarters where fingerprint matching would be done. This information will enable election tribunals to make informed decisions based on concrete evidence in a timely fashion.