Election preparation: Sindh to have 40% more polling stations

Election commission to observe Voter’s Day on October 17 to raise polling awareness.

HYDERABAD: The election commission has decided to increase the number of polling stations in Sindh by over 40 per cent. The next elections will have between 19,000 to 20,000 polling stations, said provincial election commissioner Sono Khan Baloch at a press conference on Tuesday.

There are around 13,500 stations at the moment which were set up for the 2008 elections. “Around 80 per cent voters will have to travel less than a kilometre to reach the station,” said Baloch.

The buildings to be used as permanent polling stations have reportedly been surveyed. Around 25 per cent of the structures were found to be unsuitable. “We want to avoid the allegations of changing polling stations to favour this or that candidate,” added the election commissioner.

The election commission has registered over 18.4 million voters in the province. The “addition, correction and deletion” process will continue until the election schedule is announced, he said.

While the number of voters and polling stations has grown, the number of electoral constituencies remains the same. Baloch maintained that delimitation did not fall under the commission’s purview. It can either be done through a constitutional amendment or after a population census. The last delimitation was carried out during the 2002 general elections on the basis of the 1998 census.

Talking about the security at the polling stations, the election commissioner said that Sindh police will deploy around 100,000 personnel ranked between inspectors and constables for election duty. He admitted, however, that an average of four to six policemen on each polling station will be insufficient.

The Election Commission Pakistan will observe a Voter’s Day on October 17 and will hold awareness seminars in all districts of Sindh.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 10^th, 2012.