Election offices reopen after fortnight closure
The offices of the District Returning Officer, 15 Returning Officers and 30 Assistant Returning Officers for 15 seats of the Punjab Assembly of the Rawalpindi district have been reopened after 15 days.
According to sources, all the offices of the returning and assistant returning officers have been fully open since yesterday, April 5 and staff members, who were on leave, have been called back on duty from Thursday [today] as an emergency after a hiatus of 15 days, allowing for the continuation of the election process.
The nomination papers submitted by the candidates will remain valid while no new candidate will be able to submit the application form. A total of 401 candidates are in the election arena on 15 PA seats.
Before the postponement of the election process, the objections process was underway. Therefore, it will resume from where it stopped.
According to the notification, the objections and appeals of the candidates against the nomination papers submitted from April 6 to April 10 will be heard on Thursday [today]. All decisions regarding this will be completed by April 17.
The lists will be released again on April 18 after the objections are removed and candidates will be able to withdraw nomination forms on April 19.
Election symbols will be allotted to the candidates on April 20 and the final list will be released the same day while polling will be held on May 14.
All the candidates have been given a total of 22 days for campaigning which will end at noon on May 12. A total of 37 candidates are vying for PP-6 Murree, 27 for PP-7 Kahuta, 23 for PP-8, 24 for PP-9, 32 for PP-10, 26 for PP-11, 29 for PP-12, 32 for PP-13, 20 for PP-14, 24 for PP-15, 23 for PP-16, 26 for PP-17, 25 for PP-18, 27 for PP-19 and a total of 26 candidates are contesting for PP-20.
Soon after the restoration of the election schedule, the closed offices of the candidates started opening again and all the candidates started to schedule iftar parties on an emergency basis to get the attention of the voters.
Orders for banners and Panaflex printing are also being issued while political activities have started once again in the political quarters across the city.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 6th, 2023.