ABBOTTABAD: Regional election commissioner Aziz Bahadur on Wednesday said the Election Commission of Pakistan had decided to facilitate election observers during the upcoming phase of local body polls in the province to ensuring transparency of the electoral exercise.

He was addressing an election awareness seminar at the Government Postgraduate College No 1 here, where students and teachers were in attendance.

The REC said the ECP was striving to ensure that the local body elections are held freely and transparently to strengthen democracy in the country.

He said the Election Commission was hold voter awareness seminars in the areas, where the local body elections were scheduled to be held on March 31, to increase the people’s participation in the electoral process.

“We are educating people on ballot papers and how to use them,” he said.

Mr Bahadur said the ECP was acting against violators of election code of conduct.

District election commissioner Zeeshan Khan, who was also present on the occasion, said a polling station would have five booths and only one representative of a candidate would be allowed to witness the counting of votes. He said electronic voting machine was a man-made device, which could develop faults. The official said some countries were satisfied with the EVM functioning but some had stopped using it in elections.

Meanwhile, PML-N leader retired Captain Mohammad Safdar has claimed his opposition party will sweep the March 31 phase of local body elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He told reporters here on Wednesday that a no confidence motion would be tabled against the prime minister in the National Assembly before March 31 for the early ouster of the PTI government.

Mr Safdar resented high inflation and insisted that the people were struggling to make ends meet.

He said the combined opposition’s coming agitation against the government was supported by the people against price hike, suppression and failed foreign policy of the government.

Published in Dawn, March 3rd, 2022