ISLAMABAD, Aug 17: Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retired) Irshad Hasan Khan has directed the presiding officers of Attock and Tharparkar to follow the provisions of Counting of Votes (General Election) Order 2002 with letter and spirit to make the process transparent.

According to an official announcement, the CEC emphasized that immediately after the closure of the poll, the presiding officers should ensure that all ballot boxes brought to the counting place were sealed and opened in the presence of polling agents.

He said all ballot papers from the ballot boxes should be taken out and empty ballot boxes shown to the polling agents.

He directed them to sort out ballot papers candidate-wise in separate stacks and count them separately in respect of each contesting candidate in the alphabetical order of their names.

The CEC said that the challenged votes, if any, should be counted and the number indicated in the relevant column of the statement of the count.