PESHAWAR: The army troops will be deployed at polling stations in 14 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to provide security for the re-polling of local governments on July 5.

This was decided during a meeting here on Thursday with chief secretary Amjad Ali Khan.

Election Commission of Pakistan secretary Babar Yaqub, provincial police chief Nasir Khan Durrani, home secretary Arbab Mohammad Arif and relevant senior military officials also attended the meeting.

An official statement issued here said the plan for re-election at 358 polling stations in 14 districts was discussed. The ECP had ordered re-polling in 358 polling stations after receiving complaints from losing candidates.

Violence and mismanagement had marred the local government polling process across the province on May 30 in which over 20 people were killed and around 200 suffered injuries.

The army and paramilitary troops were not deployed at polling stations.

The provincial government had blamed ECP for mismanagement, while the commission held the government responsible for the mess.

Thereafter, the government had decided to conduct judicial inquiry into the matter.

Formation of judicial commission for the purpose has not been notified so far.

The statement issued on Thursday said that army would be deployed in and outside the polling stations along with police force. The law enforcing agencies would have full powers to arrest anybody involved in disrupting electoral process.

It was decided that the army would have the authority to take action against any official in case of a credible complaint.

Besides, CCTV cameras will also be installed at polling stations to ensure transparency.

Polling will start at 8am and continue till 7pm.

Arrangements for Iftar of polling staff and other relevant authorities will also be made at polling stations.

Published in Dawn, July 3rd, 2015

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