ECP allots symbols to political parties

ROs will send names of contestants to ECP which will ensure their appearance on ballot papers

ISLAMABAD: After allocation of election symbols to all contesting political parties, all electoral formalities – other than the polling day itself – have been completed.

Returning officers across the country allocated party symbols to prospective candidates who produced party certificates while independent candidates were allocated symbols from a list of 224 symbols.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) allocated election symbols to 107 political parties, dozens of which have not fielded any candidate. Political parties fulfilling certain election laws were allowed to be registered for contesting the polls.



Returning officers (ROs) will send names of eligible contestants to the ECP which will send them to presses for printing ballot papers. This process will be handled by the Printing Corporation of Pakistan Press in Islamabad, the National Printing Security Company in Karachi and the Pakistan Post Foundation also in Islamabad.

The security of printing presses has already been handed over to the army. Military troops will also provide security to election material during its transport to offices of ROs and then to polling stations.

The ECP had made changes to the election schedule a number of times after it notified the dissolution of assemblies on May 31 this year.

Initially, the last date for submission of nomination papers was changed from June 2 to June 6 because of litigations in superior courts. It was later extended till June 8 due to litigation over certain omissions in the new nomination forms.

Making a third extension, the commission fixed June 11 as the last date for submitting nomination papers after a Supreme Court order restored affidavits that were part of 2013 nomination forms omitted in the new ones.

The ECP realigned the entire electoral processes several times.

Confusion over symbols

Most mainstream political parties provided their candidates certificate of party affiliation at the proverbial last minute.

In several such cases, political parties opted to withdraw certificates from some, assigning them to other candidates, creating confusion.

In some cases, more than one candidate claimed possessing party certificate for the same constituency. This happened in Muzaffargarh and elsewhere too.

In Muzaffargarh, three candidates from the same constituency submitted PTI’s certificates.

In such cases, ROs chose to accept the certificate submitted by the first candidate and allot the others symbols as independent candidates.



Interestingly, Maryum Nawaz, the daughter of former PM Nawaz Sharif, did not withdraw her candidature from NA-125. She had submitted nomination papers in NA-125 and NA-127. She was issued her party’s ticket for NA-127. And for NA-125, the RO had to allot her a symbol from the list of symbols reserved for independent candidates.

Option to retire

Officially, the last date for withdrawal of candidature was June 29, but if anyone still wants to get out of the election race could retire by submitting an application to the RO. This option will remain available to all prospective candidates till four days before the polling day.

List of women candidates

A few days ago, the ECP had asked all political parties to provide lists of their women candidates on general seats. However, no political party has so far bothered to provide this list to the ECP.

After approval of new election laws, all political parties have to give at least 5% of the total tickets to women.