ECP wants Rs18b for emergency needs

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has immediately requested Rs18 billion from the government as it was facing difficulties for the upcoming general elections in terms of funds.

The budget of the commission is pending in the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet.

The preparations for the upcoming general elections have entered their final stages.

According to sources, the commission has sent its revised demand for funds to the government.

The ECP has asked for Rs18 billion for pre-election preparations, but its budget is still pending in the ECC.

The commission is facing difficulties in preparing for the elections because of the pending funds.

Sources said that the ECP had sent its demand to the finance ministry and ECC.

The commission has told them that it should be provided with Rs18 billion in a few weeks for the purchase of election material.

The ECP has demanded Rs47 billion from the government for the next general elections.

Of this amount, Rs27 billion will be received in the current financial year.

The commission will receive the remaining Rs20 billion in the next fiscal year.

The procurement of material for the elections is under way while the process of the delimitation of the new constituencies has also been completed.

The electoral lists have been updated and the information about polling staff has been prepared.

The data on how many polling stations will be required as well as where they will be located has also been compiled.

The sources said the preparation for training of election staff has also been completed.

A strategy for the use of the Results Management System (RMS) has been chalked out too.

The RMS is a computer application installed at the office of the returning officer (RO). The system is an electronic form-based software where data entry operators (DEOs), reporting to the RO can enter data like names of candidates, number of registered voters, name and number of polling station, number of votes cast to each candidate and can quickly generate draft forms that used to take hours to fill by hand in the past.

The DEOs are highly trained staff who serve as support to the ROs. The RO requests the DEO to enter data into forms, and generate more forms out of it (for example, Form 45 data is entered, and draft Form 47 may be generated for the RO).

The consolidated forms are then scanned back into RMS, then transmitted to ECP or provincial election commission's headquarters.

Subsequently, they are published on the commission's website.

According to ECP sources, the list of ROs and their deputies as well as their data have also been completed.