LAHORE, Oct 2: To the extent of the Punjab capital, the district government’s town municipal officers (TMOs) have been given the responsibility to procure ballot boxes for the elections from the provincial election commission and deliver them directly to the presiding officers.
This is for the first time that officials of a local government have been given the responsibility to directly provide the ballot boxes to the presiding officers. As per previous practice, the presiding officers used to receive the boxes under the personal supervision of their respective returning officers sitting at the subordinate courts.
This arrangement has been ordered by the district returning officer on a proposal of the ROs who are said to have asked for changing the previous arrangement and shifting their responsibility to the district officials in this regard.
According to sources, the ROs floated the proposal on the ground that they were already “burdened” with administrative work pertaining to the elections and it was difficult for them to supervize the handing over of the boxes to the presiding officers.
An RO requesting anonymity disclosed that another reason for this proposal was the meagre election budget sanctioned to the presiding officers for carrying out their responsibilities. He said the budget was not sufficient enough to enable them to afford the transportation cost of the ballot boxes to the polling stations from the subordinate courts. Interestingly, the officials sitting in the office of the DRO said an allowance for the transportation of the ballot boxes had been sanctioned for the TMOs.
The TMOs of each of city’s 13 National and 25 Provincial Assembly constituencies have been directed by the DRO to collect detailed information regarding their respective constituencies, the names of polling stations set up, and the number of boxes required for each polling station from their respective ROs.
Moreover, all ROs have been directed by the DRO to ensure in writing from the presiding officers on the evening of Oct 8 —- the last date for delivering ballot boxes to them —— that they have received the required number of ballot boxes from the TMOs. The ROs will ask the SHO of every police station concerned to supervize the transportation of the ballot boxes to different polling stations from the office of the provincial election commission.
Under the election laws, two ballot boxes are to be supplied for every polling booth. The two boxes on every polling booth are meant for balloting on the National Assembly and Provincial Assembly candidates, respectively.
As disclosed in the city’s polling scheme, there are 7,927 polling booths in the 13 National Assembly constituencies out of which 4,580 are for male voters and the rest for female voters.
The other election material, including the indelible ink, rubber stamps, different stationery items and acknowledgment receipts of the polling agents were issued to the ROs by the provincial election commission on Wednesday. The material would be forwarded to the presiding officers by the ROs shortly after inspection and physical verification scheduled for Thursday.