ISLAMABAD: A majority of the polling stations being established for the upcoming general polls have been declared sensitive or highly sensitive, Dawn learnt on Sunday.

Sources said that out of the total 90,675 polling stations being established across the country, as many as 46,065 (just over 50 per cent) of them have been categorised as sensitive, with 18,437 of them highly sensitive.

The total number of ‘sensitive’ and ‘most sensitive’ polling stations in Punjab comes to 18,620 (or 40.42pc). These include 12,580 categorised as sensitive and 6,040 categorised as being most sensitive. Just over 32,000 of the total 50,944 polling stations in Punjab have been declared ‘normal’.

In Sindh, there are 6,545 ‘sensitive’ and 6,524 ‘most sensitive’ polling stations, which means that only 5,937 out of the total 19,006 polling stations in the province are considered ‘normal’.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), the number of ‘sensitive’ and ‘most sensitive’ polling stations is 10,309, which include 6,166 ‘sensitive’ and 4,143 ‘highly sensitive’. The total number of polling stations in the province is 15,697, of which just around one third (5,388) are considered normal.

In Balochistan, the situation appears to be even worse, where the proportion of normal polling stations in below 20 percent. The total number of polling stations is 5,028, out of which just 961 have been declared ‘normal’, while the rest are divided into 2,337 ‘sensitive’ and 1,730 ‘most sensitive’ polling stations.

A senior official of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), however, said that these statistics were tentative and might see some changes after the submission of security plans by the respective district police officers (DPOs).

The official also said that under the law, the commission is supposed to install or direct any government to install surveillance camera(s) in each polling booth of the most sensitive polling stations to record poll proceedings, counting of vote process and preparation of results by the presiding officer, besides taking other appropriate security measures.

He indicated that the respective provincial governments will be asked to install these security cameras.

He also said the commission, in exercise of its powers, has obtained the services of the armed forces in terms of Article 245 of the Constitution and civil armed forces under Article 220 of the Constitution to assist it and ensure security arrangements for the conduct of general elections-2024 scheduled to be held on February 8 in the prescribed manner.

He said these forces will also deploy a sufficient number of troops outside selected ‘most sensitive’ polling stations as per their threat assessment, besides carrying out reconnaissance of each constituency.

The official also said voters would be able to get details of their respective polling stations through 8300 SMS service from today (Monday).

Published in Dawn, January 29th, 2024

To find your constituency and location of your polling booth, SMS your NIC number (no spaces) to 8300. Once you know your constituency, visit the ECP website here for candidates.