ISLAMABAD: Acting Chief Election Commissioner Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jilani has convened a meeting on Monday to review arrangements for the by-elections to be held across the country on Thursday.

The chief secretaries of the four provinces, defence secretary, the chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and the director general of the Pakistan Meteorological Department will attend the meeting.

An official of the Election Commission of Pakistan told Dawn that the meeting would give final touches to the arrangements for by-elections.

A proposal to deploy the army in and outside polling stations and the situation about security, rain and floods will be the main items of the meeting’s agenda.

The defence secretary is expected to brief the meeting about the deployment of troops at polling stations.

Senior representatives of the NDMA and Met department will share the latest flood situation and weather forecast of the constituencies where by-elections are to be held.

The acting CEC will also preside over an internal meeting of the commission at 4pm on Sunday.

ECP Secretary Ishtiak Ahmad Khan, acting Additional Secretary Syed Sher Afgan and other senior officials of the commission will attend the meeting.

The four provincial election commissioners have been directed to brief the meeting on arrangements for by-elections.

Over 535 candidates are in the run for 42 national and provincial assembly seats.

There are 216 candidates in the contest for 16 national assembly seats.

A total of 180 candidates are vying for 15 Punjab Assembly seats, 82 for four Sindh Assembly seats, 32 for three Balochistan Assembly seats and 27 for four Khyber Pakhtunkhawa Assembly seats.

Of the 7,622 polling stations to be set up for the elections, 3,644 have been declared ‘sensitive’, with 1,657 of them falling in the category of ‘highly sensitive’.