ISLAMABAD: In order to determine where army and Rangers personnel should be deployed, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has sought reports from governments of Punjab and Sindh about ‘sensitive polling stations’ to be set up for the upcoming local government elections.

“Army and Rangers personnel cannot be deployed at all the polling stations,” ECP Secretary Babar Yaqoob Fateh Mohammad told reporters on Tuesday after screening of a video clip prepared for training of presiding officers and other election staff.

He said that chief secretaries of the two provinces had been asked to review the status of polling stations and submit a report about the “sensitive and most sensitive stations” so that the ECP could take decisions accordingly.

The ECP secretary said the 45-minute video dealt with all phases of the electoral exercise, from receiving election material to start of polling and from issuance of ballot papers to the counting of votes. He said the video would help bridge gaps in the training of election staff.

The video clip, he said, was being sent to all presiding officers of Punjab and Sindh and was also being placed on the ECP’s website.

It would be sent to all political parties so that their polling agents could acquaint themselves with the procedures involved. He said returning officers were also being given necessary instructions in this regard.

He said the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority had been requested to instruct all mobile phone operators to send a public service message to the subscribers so that they could learn how to get information about their votes.

He said the ECP was making all efforts to plug loopholes in the light of guidelines provided by the judicial commission which investigated the allegations of rigging in the 2013 general elections so that the next general elections could be made error-free.

He said it was because of mistakes committed by the polling staff that demands for introduction of electronic voting machines (EVMs) and biometric machines were being made. There would be no need for such machines if the polling staff performed their duties properly, he said.

He was of the opinion that introducing EVMs and biometric machines would be a blunder if these were pressed into service without proper testing and validation.

He could not promise that technology would be used in the next general elections because a parliamentary committee was still pondering over the matter and experiments were being carried out, he said.

The decision in this regard should not be taken just by the ECP, but by the entire society, he added.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2015

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