Pakistan

Voting machines to be used in NA-120

The commission right now has 150 biometric and 100 electronic voting machines for the trial run

Irfan Ghauri August 10, 2017

PHOTO: ECP.GOV.PK

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday announced that it will use electronic voting and biometric verification machines at some polling stations in NA-120 (Lahore) where by-polls are scheduled for September 17.

The commission right now has 150 biometric and 100 electronic voting machines for the trial run that will be used in the National Assembly’s constituency NA-120.

The NA-120 fell vacant after the ECP denotified Nawaz Sharif in line with the Supreme Court’s July 28 judgment, disqualifying him as prime minister.

NA-120 election campaigns gaining serious momentum

Those machines will also be used in the Punjab Assembly constituency PP-4 (Gujar Khan) where by-elections will be held the same day.

Due to its political significance, pundits see some interesting contest between the ruling PML-N and its arch rival PTI.

PTI has already announced Dr Yasmeen Rashid as its candidate for the constituency. The PML-N has not yet announced its candidate. However, it is speculated that either Begum Kulsoom Nawaz, the wife of former premier, or his daughter Maryam Nawaz will contest the by-election.

NA-120 has a total of 321,633 voters. Among them 179,505 are male while 142,128 are female voters. The ECP has already announced the polling scheme. There will be a total of 220 polling stations in the constituency. Of these 103 will be for male voters, 98 for female voters and 19 combined.

Shehbaz will not contest for NA-120: sources

Altogether 568 polling booths will be set up in those polling stations.

Besides the district returning officer, returning officer and three assistant returning officers, the ECP has already appointed 220 presiding officers, 568 assistant presiding officers and polling officers each.

The commission has contacted the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) to provide it the required data of voters to be uploaded in EVMs and Biometric machines to be used in the polls.

Earlier, the ECP had decided to use the machines during by-polls in Sindh a couple of months back but NADRA did not provide it the required data and the programme was shelved.