LAHORE, Oct 14: The District Returning Officer (DRO) was informed on Monday that no “secure place” was available to dump the used election material, including bags stuffed with ballot papers and thousands of empty ballot boxes, lying here and there within the premises of the sessions court.

The bags and the ballot boxes were deposited with the offices of the returning officers by the presiding officers concerned after counting of votes on the polling day. The bags had been dumped in the courtrooms of the returning officers while the ballot boxes piled up in the verandas of the court.

However, four days following the announcement of the election results in the provincial capital, both the district government and the provincial election commission —- the two authorities concerned with the matter —- were totally at a loss as to how to dispose of millions of ballot papers stuffed in the bags and the boxes.

Moreover, the bags containing indelible ink, rubber stamps, ballpens and other writing materials had also been piled up in the courtrooms of the returning officers, making it impossible for them to carry out their routine judicial work.

As per the previous practice, all the bags were dumped in the provincial treasury while the empty ballot boxes were stored in another secured place arranged by the provincial election commission.

The Lahore DCO informed the DRO that the provincial treasury was not available for the timebeing for the storage of the used election material. It was disclosed that the treasury was completely occupied by the ballot papers used in the local bodies election last year were still lying there and no instructions had been made received as yet with regard to the disposal of these bags.

As disclosed by the officials of the DRO office, the provincial election commission had not forwarded any information with regard to the removal of the empty ballot boxes from the court premises.

Due to absence of a response from the election authorities, the DRO had written a letter to the provincial chief election commissioner for providing gunny bags under the election rules to get the ballot papers and other stationery items stuffed in those bags.

According to the sources, the authorities in response to this letter had shown inability to provide gunny bags, saying no such bags had been delivered from Karachi office as yet.

Later, in the afternoon, the DRO further issued directions to the security police officials to be more vigilant in safeguarding the used election materials. According to the new instructions, four police officials had been deputed outside every courtroom of the city’s 13 returning officers. Two police officials would safeguard the entrance of the courtrooms whereas the remaining two would be standing at the rear door to protect the election materials. The Lahore deputy election commissioner confirmed that no decision had been made as yet for the removal of the ballot boxes and bags carrying election material as yet. When asked about the time-frame for shifting the election materials to a safer place, he said there was no urgency for doing so.